The Odyssey Blade
by Silence-Darkness
Summary: Feral. Despair. Fury. Sorrow. Fear. Entice. Errors made and to be fixed by the Odyssey Blade. Link battles against the foreign presence, both without and within.
1. Prove your Worth

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask do not belong to me. I am just freely advertising the game created by Nintendo by creating a fanfiction based on what the game already shown. Most of the characters and places shown are from the original game, but some are created by me. Thank you. Enjoy!  
  
Chapter 1: Prove Your Worth  
  
Hyrule was within the midst of summer. From the scorching temperatures of Death Mountain to the cooling waters of Zora Domain, the temperature difference aided in the flow of a pleasant breeze that blew westwards, shuffling against the relenting blades of grass on the Field. With it, it caught the sweet melody of someone singing, heading on and crossing the calm waters of the Lake. And just as it was finishing its course through Hyrule, it picked up just one other voice - not by any count louder than the rest, and certainly not as regal, but a voice that belonged to one that was held in regards higher than any of nobler birth.  
  
"You know, this is getting ridiculous."  
  
For one as high standing as the Hero of Time, his speech certainly wasn't eloquent.  
  
Link, with a few arrows bunched up underneath his arm pit, was thinking that one's health isn't great if your face is turning red.  
  
Part of the redness was caused by the heat waves that surrounded the Desert, and the outside of the Gerudo Fortress (oddly enough, the stone walls didn't not make them bake in an oven, but protected them from the harsh sun). But the majority of it was because he was upside down.  
  
With his feet strapped to a bungee cord.  
  
"Prove my worth my flat foot." The 13 year old blond muttered to himself, as little children - all with red hair - passed by above him, some of them knocking the bungee cord he was attached with. "Yeah, I'm dealing with a bunch of thieves, so to prove my worth is to be able to steal, right? Apparently they had to mess it up even worse."  
  
Since the fall of Ganondorf, as well as his journey through Termina, Link decided to visit the Gerudo to make sure there were no hard feelings among the people.  
  
Apparently there were some people who resented his attack against their King, and him being the unknowing fool to Gerudo culture, accepted what they said would prove his worth and end all bitterness against him.  
  
So bingo, there Link was, hanging on a bungee cord, with 10 arrows, his bow, and 15 Wolfos underneath him. Wonderful position, isn't it?  
  
"Don't take so long, male! When the sun hits its peak, we're cutting the cord!" One very angry Gerudo shouted above him. Link glanced downwards (or upwards, if you think in that manner) and checked the sun's position in the sky. 'Great', he thought, 'I got about an hour before I'm dropped into this problem'.  
  
The big deal was this: with these 10 worthless arrows, Link was to shoot down as many of the 15 Wolfos as possible. Once it reached midday, or he ran out of arrows, the cord was to be cut, and he'd have to fight the rest of them - with a dagger. Not very appealing, that thought was.  
  
Once he's scratched, bleeding, limping, but essentially alive, he'd to sneak around the fortress - like a thief, yes - and steal back the items they took from him. Without getting caught.  
  
And if he's caught, he'd have to fight the Gerudo holding that item - still with a dagger. If he gets caught trying to retrieve all 24 masks, his long- shot, bomb bag, sword, ocarina and everything else, he'd have to fight over 30 Gerudo - with a dagger still, unless he retrieves his sword and shield first.  
  
"Gerudo hospitality never ceases to amaze me," Link grumbled, trying to aim at a Wolfos's tail while bouncing up and down. "I'm certain they'll become the Hyrule's number one dignitaries."  
  
You know, of all the times Link had to sound professional in front of royalty, having to sound polite to higher class people, he certainly never seemed to achieve it properly.  
  
As well as all the times he fought beasts, creatures which their prime motivation to live bent away from survival and towards the harm of others, he wasn't very good at fighting them all. He ran away, most of the time, with the thought of 'it's not cowardice, it is common sense'.  
  
That of the person bearing the Triforce of Courage.  
  
The only thing Link had to say of the moment summed up to 'Shooting while bouncing upside down is hard'.  
  
Not quite the understatement of the year, but still horribly understated nonetheless.  
  
He already had shot 6 arrows into the pit below him full of wild, (and probably, but hopefully not) rabid canine mutations and only 2 of them actually hit the pack of Wolfos - with one of them blocked by it's claws, and the other only grazing the other one. With 4 arrows left, 35 minutes to go and that odd, sickening feeling you get if you spin too much on the spot right after you ate in your head and stomach, his chances of managing to take down all those Wolfos were as slim as a blade of grass.  
  
"Okay," he muttered quietly, "If I'm bouncing, and they all like to group up beneath me, if I aim this direction-" Fiddling with his bow, he accidentally dropped one arrow down. Oops. "Fine, so if I aim this direction, and fire when I'm at my highest, I should be able to-" His speech was cut short and the Gerudo on top shouted at him.  
  
"Shut your mouth, male! Yapping to yourself won't get you anywhere." She imperiously said, kicking the cord for good measure.  
  
Grumbling, Link glanced up to see what time it was. He had about 10 minutes, and that incredibly ignorant (Link actually wished to say some more. drastic words, but his good sense against females toned it down) Gerudo was smirking at him.  
  
'What was her name?' Link thought. 'Pretzel? No, that doesn't sound right. Rusher? Nope, not that one either. Reza? Sounds about right, I think.' In his thoughts, Link accidentally released the arrow, which fortunately managed to hit one Wolfos's tail.  
  
Yapping to yourself won't get you anywhere, but not getting anywhere is being somewhere.  
  
Once Link finally managed to measure when and where the arrow should fly, he actually did take down two more Wolfos. Running out of arrows, as said earlier, the cord was cut.  
  
Link could almost feel the Gerudo's smirk when he painfully landed on the ground. Groaning, he up righted himself, and when he was about to stand up, felt something cold and wet on his arm.  
  
'It's not raining, so what by Goddesses is that?' Raising his head to see, he found he was face to face with a Wolfos.  
  
It was a hungry one.  
  
It was a very hungry one.  
  
'Uh oh.' "Yaaaah!" Link screamed as he jolted back, grabbing over his left shoulder for what should have been the hilt of his Gilded Sword. Realizing that problem a few seconds too slow, two of the remaining twelve Wolfos pounced on him.  
  
Link was certain that this position wasn't the best for survival - two logs of fur, teeth and very sharp claws resting on him, with his dagger in a position that would damage himself more than the creature to pull it out, Link was in quite the fix. Kicking the Wolfos that was directly above him, he went into a crouched position, snapped out the dagger and waited for the next one to attack. Due to the Wolfos newer advantage of reach, a head on attack would have been foolish.  
  
One of the smaller ones were willing to comply. Charging on all fours and first attempted to just simply bite him first. Thankfully, one of the perks of not using a sword and shield was that it was easier to move around without the extra weight on him. When it had realized that the simple snapping approach would not work against Link, it went towards the more custom attack of clawing the opponent.  
  
'Too basic.' Link smirked, straining his leg muscles in preparation to dodge back. One of the flaws of these incredible beasts was that since its arms packed so much power, after each swing its recoil would be to great block the upcoming blow.  
  
Just when he was about to jump back, another Wolfos attempted to attack him from the side. Thankfully, it was to his left side, and Link managed to snap out his wrist to leave a light scratch against the Wolfos's face. Angered, it charged again, and Link simply took a step back, with the two Wolfos that were after him colliding. With their heads temporarily muddled up, Link leapt at the chance and first stabbing the closest Wolfos hard on its tail, he jumped aside - leaving his knife behind - to kick the other one in the throat to buy him more time. With that, he rolled under a third Wolfos's swipe ("Well, they certainly learn cooperation very fast." Link muttered quietly to himself) grabbed his dagger back and with as much force (and luck) as possible, swung it hard enough to stab that Wolfos's shoulder. Of course, that was disabling one arm - Link had forgotten about the other. That mistake was paid duly.  
  
Above, the Gerudo that Link had dubbed Reza was sitting down with her legs curled to her chest, chin resting on her knees, a light smirk on her face. While it was rather a gruesome sight to see a child still not old enough to be considered an adult being mauled at by the Wolfos, it did hold some entertainment value that he managed to hold back and protect his vital parts with a puny little knife.  
  
'Ooh,' she thought, watching as Link stabbed one Wolfos too close for comfort in the eye, 'that got to hurt.'  
  
Whatever it was she thought was amusing or painful down in that pit, Reza was glad that it wasn't her in there. A blow to her pride that she might not be able to match up to this male in his challenges, but she certainly knew she wouldn't be able to fight all of the Wolfos with a knife.  
  
As Link finally removed the remaining threat from the pit (he finished it off by kicking its reproductive organs then a knife to the throat when it howled), she threw down a rope for Link to climb out with.  
  
"Not bad, male. You do show some prowess against beasts like that." She remarked after he got out, his once green tunic slashed all over the place and drenched crimson with the now drying blood of both his and his opponents' cuts.  
  
"You don't honestly want to know where I got all that skill from." He responded, while limping out.  
  
"Great", he softly said, examining all his cuts, "I got about half an hour to rest, examine a map of this fortress and bandage myself up." Looking at the sky for help (and finding none), he added on "Then I got until morning to find all my items and get them back."  
  
Reza almost pitied the guy when she overheard his time distribution plans. He could back out anytime, but that was what the test was supposed to prove.  
  
Standing until the timer's out, to prove determination.  
  
To prove strength, you fight against the Wolfos.  
  
Scouting all over the fortress (except restricted zones), to prove landscape memory.  
  
To prove skill, you steal back your items.  
  
You fight the guards holding your items, to prove courage.  
  
To prove sneaking skills, you have to avoid the guards patrolling.  
  
All in all, the test was supposed to prove your worth to thieves. If you passed all the elements of the test, you would be accepted among the Gerudo.  
  
'Ah well,' she thought, roughly shoving into Link's arms a first aid kit, 'It's either he makes it or he doesn't. Becoming a worthy and to be respected outsider or a lowly man. The choices are simple enough.  
  
Meanwhile, Link was having trouble with the bandages - should he bandage his arms first, but let that gash in his stomach keep on bleeding, or bandage his stomach, but make it incredibly hard since his arms are bleeding too?  
  
His choice was made up for him when two enormous Gerudo came in and started bandaging him with - although tender care - incredible force.  
  
"Ow, you old crone, can't you be easier on the cuts?" He cried out, wincing as her response was to press even harder.  
  
"Stuff it, kid, this is to make sure that blood doesn't circulate too fast in that area, and helps prevent further blood loss if you open it again." One of the two muttered, applying a cold strip of. something on the minor scratches on his back.  
  
"What is that?" He asked, feeling a bit awkward with that thing plastered on and being strapped on with more bandages.  
  
"It's a cloth soaked in Gerudo herbal medicine, and quit your whining." The other one responded whacking Link on the back to make sure it was stuck there. "Stupid outsider." The lady added on quietly, probably to her partner. After the treatment, Link wasn't sure whether he should feel refreshed or moan in agony.  
  
Link glanced at the map, and seeing that his idea of rest wouldn't fit it on the schedule, just chose to walk around the fortress and examine the map. He was just about to finish his second round around the building when he bumped into a lady.  
  
'Oh,' Link thought grimly, looking at that crooked smile, 'Reza again.'  
  
"What'd you want?" He asked bluntly - lady or no, Reza was a Gerudo, she won't mind. Besides, it was rather unnerving to see her keeping the same light smirk while he was battling with inappropriate equipment against one of his most disliked beast.  
  
"If you actually had brains in that thick skull of yours, you would have asked someone about who were holding your items. Now, you'll have to check every single Gerudo for them all. Stupid boy." She casually remarked, pointing to the fortress he was circling about before. Thinking about it, Link groaned.  
  
"Wonderful," he grumbled, "just wonderful."  
  
"Glad you like it so much." She off-handedly remarked, her crooked smile still there. She was about to leave when she stopped and turned around. "I could tell you where your sword and shield is, and who's guarding it, however."  
  
"Really?" He asked.  
  
"Yes, really." She responded.  
  
"Okay then. where are they?"  
  
Reza stared at him flatly. "For one such as well-traveled as you, I think you'd know by now that nothing comes without a price, especially from us thieves."  
  
Link sighed. "How much do you want?" Reza blinked at that.  
  
"What do you mean how much.? Oh! You meant rupees! No, I don't want rupees - they have only materialistic value. I would request a spar with you afterwards. We Gerudo don't just thrive on items, you know - value does apply to us." She puffed up at that.  
  
"Huh? Okay, sure, I don't see why not." Actually, he could see why - as a proud Gerudo fighter, she liked to compare against outsiders, seeing who was better. As he had fought many monsters, some human-shaped and some not even resembling anything alive, he was quite certain that he would win that spar - any spar with a Gerudo is a battle. It is hard, unrelenting, and requiring wits as sharp as the edge of his sword.  
  
Nodding (and making sure no one knew she was helping someone on his own test - that would degrade her status in the Sisterhood) she told him what she knew about it.  
  
"What? My sword is hidden with Nabooru, and she keeps walking all over the place, and my shield is stuck somewhere underground, with a prison guard? You're not being very helpful, you know that." Link stared wide-eyed at her. Nabooru was probably the best among all the others, and with her on the move it would be hard enough trying to sneak by and snatch it without ringing her internal alarms and fighting her with a dagger. He already had a tough time navigating this place before when he was in the future, and given so little time, he might not be able to find his shield easily.  
  
"I'm not supposed to tell you anything after you accepted the fight against the Wolfos," she replied lightly, her smile being more of a smirk. "Be grateful that I'm helping you this far on your test."  
  
Link had to nod at that - he should've asked before he readily agreed to what would happen. Choosing that night time would be the best time to try to steal back his items, Link spent the remaining time with the sun out exploring the fortress (trying not to be detected) and observing where the patrol routes were. 


	2. Scour the Fort

A/N: Thanks Ice Sage, always get that part confused. Never wrote a fanfic before, so I really don't know much (plus the fact that I never completed Ocarina of Time). I'll keep your suggestion in mind.  
  
Chapter 2: Scouring the Fort  
  
All Link had to say about the place was that it was a lot bigger than he thought. Especially since he had to scale walls, climb boxes, hide above rafters, cling every so tightly against the ceiling (in hopes of not falling down), all without aid of his hookshot.  
  
All Link could say about it was that it was very, very tiring to his fingers. How he would be able to fight with a dagger with his fingers blistered from gripping just the slightest bump on the wall, he would not know.  
  
All Link could wish about it was that he wished he wasn't wearing green. 'Sure, I like this tunic, as it reminds me of the Kokiri Forest, but couldn't they have worn brown or yellow instead?' Wearing all green in a Desert does have its downsides, as he was noticed a few times by passing patrols, just because they knew they didn't grow cacti inside the fort.  
  
Link almost had to smile at the patrolling groups. They all seemed to follow a strict pattern, making it very easy to know when to run across and when to hide. Of course, the fact that they seemed to have a fancy of keeping large crates around the place also helped.  
  
While Link was attending to his extremely sore fingers and exhausted arms up in the rafters, three Gerudo patrols were walking underneath him. While they looked like every other patrol coming by, Link noticed something that would help him a lot afterwards - one of them had his hookshot.  
  
Getting to his feet quietly, he crouched down, and using his hands to help balance himself, followed them around. His real plan was to get the items at night, but since this one didn't seem that prepared, plus they didn't seem to know he was in their Fort, why not just get it now?  
  
There was only one problem in his plan. While there were 3 of them, he was only one person, and snatching the hookshot from the lady would certainly catch the attention of the other two as well. That would not bode well for him, as he only had a knife with him.  
  
"Ah well," Link muttered quietly, "I could always jump back up with the hookshot now." Waiting for a chance for the Gerudo to separate slightly from her companions, Link jumped.  
  
And he landed on top of her.  
  
Oops.  
  
Link knew that Gerudo were tough people - she wouldn't feel more than just stunned by his descent. Quickly grabbing his hookshot back and scrambling before the others aimed their weapons at him, he shot up into the rafters again and ran away.  
  
"Sisters! A boy in green runs around in our Fortress by the rafters! Help me search for him!" Link winced - now they knew that he found extra paths above ground, he was certain that they would look up as well. Less places for him to run about on, and Link really couldn't afford an encounter until he got his sword and shield back.  
  
'Ah well,' Link thought, smiling slightly, 'live and learn, live and learn.' All he had to do was find another way to scout the area.  
  
If it wasn't so important to stay silent, Link really wanted to burst out laughing. Here he was, scuttling around the place, without the Gerudo noticing anything.  
  
He was one of the crates.  
  
Just kicking away the bottom side (that created a lot of noise, so he had to hurry up before the guards find him) He jumped in, and started sawing nine holes into the crate with his knife. On the four sides that surrounded him, he cut two holes each, and one hole on the side above him. All he did was scuttle aside when he believed they weren't looking and then join in with the lines of crates elsewhere.  
  
Link was definitely surprised that the Gerudo didn't notice holes in one of the crates. Link was frightened when suddenly; the crate he decided to sit next to suddenly sneezed. The sound was muffled since it had to travel through wood, but if he could hear it, he was sure that the patrols nearby would.  
  
'Please don't notice me, please don't notice me.' Link kept that mantra in his mind, while four Gerudo guards approached. 'I'm doomed.' That's all he could think of. After all, now that they got their attention to his place, a box with holes in it would look out of the ordinary. Crouching down, Link prepared to flee when they picked up the crate.  
  
The sound of wood being broken apart echoed in Link's head  
  
"Hey, what are you doing here?" One of the guards shouted.  
  
Link blinked. They found him, but why was it still as dark as when he only had holes? That probably meant that they didn't find him, they found.  
  
"Reza, what are you doing here?" Link blinked again. Her? What was she doing here? While in his state of confusion, he heard her mutter something about methane and something about a flint.  
  
Deciding that what she said was an excuse for her to tail him (someone must have noticed a crate was moving, after all - Link was grateful it was her at most) Link decided to ditch the crate and return to sneaking around. After all, being in a crate is really hard to explain why you are on staircases, anyway.  
  
Waiting for a chance, he slinked out of it and carefully tried to scoot over and climb the walls again. Thankfully, the sun was setting and its shadow being cast, no one noticed a dark blob move up the wall.  
  
Link thought he had it planned out, pretty much. Since he already had his hookshot, things would be easier. The first thing he would do is get his shield (he noticed the lady kept nodding off), run around the place a bit to lose anyone following him, grab his deku nut pouch from one of the Gerudo children that was told to keep it, make a large snap over there (and mystically disappear), find one of the children's training area to scoop up his bunny hood mask, wear it and ferret all over the place to lose anymore stalkers again, then go up into one of the watch towers to grab his deku stick sling (Link winced at that memory - he had to scale the exterior walls with only his bare hands to know where that was), and since most of the Gerudo guards know that he is around already, use his hookshot to visit the next watchtower ("Lord help me if there are archers" Link muttered earlier as he stared at the map), use the deku stick to light the stands to attract attention, the jump down onto the roof of the fort without screaming in fright, go check the armoury and snatch the stone mask from one of the guards, return to the tower that he lit, hope that Nabooru would come to check, follow her discretely then snatch his sword back. After that, everything else should be a piece of cake.  
  
No one can blame Link for being an optimist. After all, that was the thing that kept him going against Ganondorf; the hopes that he can help all of Hyrule and freeing the people.  
  
While navigating in the dungeons, he decided that working down here must be really boring. No one was stupid enough to actually anger the Gerudo enough to get thrown down here (except himself - but Link held that thought back), so there is pretty much nothing to do. Finding the guard in mind, Link was glad she didn't change shifts - one of the flaw of his superbly effective (like said, you can't blame him for being a bit too optimistic) plan was that most of the people holding his items never stayed in the same routine.  
  
Creeping up to her, he tried to carefully pick up his Mirror shield without scraping it against the floor it was resting on. The shadow cast by his body picking up the shield was small thankfully, so the Gerudo in question didn't really notice anything different. The crackle of the torches' fire was lulling her to sleep, and when you stare at the dancing flames too long your mind starts to wander.  
  
When Link finally pulled up his shield and placing it on his back, he scooted off, glad that the rough leather of his boots didn't make any sound. Creeping around the place wasn't really his stuff, so any help he had he appreciated.  
  
After he finished meandering around the fortress, Link was scouting the place again. Where was that child? The kid was only a head shorter than him, and if he remembered correctly, there weren't that many kids that short here. She wasn't where he saw her last.  
  
"Hey!" Link jolted and turned around. There was a Gerudo guard there, pointing one of her scimitars at him. She drew the other one, and forming a combat stance, Link looked around the place; unless he wished to scale the walls again, he'd have to fight her. Since scaling walls takes too long, he wasn't given much of a choice.  
  
Pulling out his shield, he crouched down, shield hand on the ready, and waited for her to charge. Link scowled, for without a fairy to help him target her, and the darkness of the night helping to cloak her, he'd have to be ready at all sides.  
  
That also includes his back.  
  
The guard charged at him in the usual fashion, but when he raised his shield to block, using it as a pivot point, she leapt over him and swinging her deadly blades sharply, Link was fortunate that he turned around fast enough to block it. Arm vibrating, with some of the milder cuts he received from the Wolfos opening again, he knew that another of those strikes would put his arm out of commission for a while.  
  
Taking the offensive, he charged at her, using the shield as a battering ram. She simply jumped over, and Link expecting the coming attack this time, instead rolled forward and out of range. Turning around, he tried running in from the side, swinging again, to which she jumped again, with him rolling out of reach again. The same process repeated again.  
  
And it repeated again.  
  
'This is taking too much time', Link thought, as the moon was reaching its peak, as well as the sound of a sword clashing would bound to attract attention. Trying a different tactic, he charged in from the front, and expecting the flip over, charged where he thought she would land. It worked, with him ramming into her swords heavily, knocking her down. Pulling out the dagger he was given, he aimed it at her throat and lowered his knee to her stomach to pin her down.  
  
The Gerudo tried struggling, but seeing that it was futile, gave up. Once she gave a nod, Link smiled, pulled back his hand and offered her a hand up. She grudgingly accepted it, and said with a bit of respect and shame "You're apparently a lot better than me."  
  
Link smiled, not wanting to make more noise as required, and walked off. The Gerudo sighed and turned around, but turned back when she heard an 'oof' sound. She sighed again, but this time with a bit more amusement, and mumbled to herself "I lost against a person who trips over his own feet."  
  
Yes, he did trip, but it wasn't over his own feet. Getting up into a sitting position, he was particularly happy at what he tripped over. Apparently the Gerudo child left his deku nut pouch behind.  
  
After that encounter, Link chose to be a bit more careful about his 'losing stalkers' approach, as running around was likely to become a 'gain stalkers' approach. The bunny hood mask was where he thought it was before, and being able to run around the place faster did help him avoid other guards.  
  
Commencing on with the plan, Link really did have to fight back the urge to scream from the fall. It would not do to attract anymore attention, as he could see that six guards had already reached the tower he lit just now. Rolling with the impact, he ran off, the only thing to detect his presence being the soft sound his feet made.  
  
'Grasshopper is an odd name', Link thought, smiling at the memory, 'but it oddly fits. Same goes with fairy boy.' It's an odd name, but oddly fits. He wasn't a Kokiri, but he had a fairy. Link grew slightly depressed at that thought, with 'had' being the operative word, not 'has'.  
  
The armoury was actually quite easy to find. There were two glaives being crossed at the entrance, with scimitars on each side of the wall hanging to give it a more professional look. There were two guards posted at the door, but one deku nut later, with the guards leaving to check what that was, it allowed him entry inside.  
  
He was really impressed by the security system in here. Since they were a bunch of skilled thieves, Link could safely assume that they would take measures so that their own techniques of stealing had counters they could use. Since the armoury wouldn't be a nice place to left any thief into, there were twelve guards patrolling, all in pairs.  
  
Link picked up a scimitar from its position on the wall and steadily approached the Gerudo that kept the Stone Mask in a pouch. Using the flat of the blade, he knocked out her partner, and before she could draw her weapon knocked her out too. Smiling when he took the Stone mask, he frowned soon afterwards when four of the nearby Gerudo came up to him. Waving cheerfully, he put on the mask and ran.  
  
The rest of his challenge was really a breeze. With the stone mask in hand when he felt there were people nearby, and the bunny hood mask when he needed that burst of speed, most of his items were collected very fast. Nabooru didn't know what happened when all of a sudden a boy in green appeared on the stairway and donning a yellow hat (he moved too fast for her to recognise what it was) he rushed by, grabbed the Gilded Sword she strapped to her waist and disappeared again.  
  
About 3 o'clock in the morning, Link checked what he collected back. Leaning against a post, with his leg dangling from the rafters, Link examined his items. "Let's see. got nearly everything, only need to do is find my Zora mask, the gem for Nayru's Love and the Fierce Deity mask." Link frowned at that thought. When he wore the Fierce Deity mask, it did imbue him with a tremendous amount of power, but it also increased his desires to survive, to win . to keep on fighting. Link hoped that no one was foolish enough to wear the mask. It may look funny, but he hoped no one was that curious.  
  
He was about to jump down and keep on going when he heard a loud scream - a scream that told of unimaginable pain, incredible suffering and then soon, the scream turned into a loud roar of laughter, one of shock, amusement and malice.  
  
He started running towards that direction when screams of fear accompanied that laugh. Some Gerudo charged ahead in front of him, apparently ignoring him for what seemed to be a greater threat, and more screams had joined the fray.  
  
Link frowned deeply. 'It seems that I found my Fierce Deity mask'. 


	3. Fighting the Possessed

A/N: Thanks H7 for your reply. Nice story of yours (Broken Dreams), by the way. For a while I might be updating at a maddening rate, but once school starts it'll be slowing down. Chapter 3: Fighting the Possessed  
  
Link scrambled as fast as he could to where the shouts were emitting from. Swearing, it appeared to be in one of the main chambers of the Fortress. The Gerudo were still charging ahead of him, and that was why Link was swearing. Due to his smaller form, even though he was wearing the bunny hood mask, some of the Guards could outrun him, and since he didn't really know where the main room was (he guess it was since it'll have to be big to hold all those people rushing in), following the slower ones won't get him there in time; for he was the only one who knew what they were dealing with, and following the faster ones might come with him going the wrong direction when he loses them, taking him more time.  
  
He didn't need to worry about that problem anymore, because all of a sudden he was picked up by the scruff of his tunic, and it appeared someone was dragging him along. Looking to his side to thank the person, he blinked when he saw it "Nabooru? I thought you would have been there already." Her mouth twitched - a cross between a scowl and a smile - and replied somewhat bitterly.  
  
"I was being held back by some of my peers, the ones that didn't really agree with Ganondorf's downfall and allowing the outsider that brought him down inside the Fort. Most of us are very traditional, for when a male child is born among us, and he to be crowned King, all the Gerudo must follow him, to war, to peace, to success, to death. For him to be killed is a great blow to our tradition, and while they do respect your strength and courage, they are some still bitter against what you did." She muttered, choosing the right path of a fork in the Fortress.  
  
"But I didn't kill-" Link was cut short when Nabooru finished it off for him.  
  
"You didn't kill him? Of course I know that, but they don't. Try and explain to a whole community that you had travelled far ahead in time, fought their King whom transformed into a beast, sealed him in a legendary realm then travelled back with only the Sages knowing what you did. I only told them that he was essentially dead, killed by the Hero of Time, and that being you. That's all." He was going to reply back to that, but they had already reached the place.  
  
Link's eyes widened at what had happened. Thankfully, most of them that entered were merely knocked out, many with large bruises and deep slashes, but mercifully still alive. There were still five more Gerudo still on their feet (excluding the one wearing the mask), and if you counted Link and Nabooru, only seven still in the right shape to keep on fighting.  
  
Dropping down, Link charged at the masked Gerudo, but had to roll back to avoid a decapitating blast of energy. "By Farore's Wind", he swore loudly, "she can also throw them too!" The other five had discovered that before him, and when one of them tried to deflect that blast, it melted her scimitar.  
  
The masked one was really a tremendous sight to behold. Her hair had also been dyed white, and had face markings as well. She seemed to be wearing red and brown armour, and with those scimitars changed into blacker, sharper versions, it was apparent that getting too close would not only be futile to try and cut through the armour, but suicidal to get that close to her weapons.  
  
"Pull back!" Link shouted at the five of them, and since there was nothing better to do, they flipped over her (one being clipped on the waist by an energy blade) and going to Link's side, prepared for the next coming attack.  
  
"I think I can get the mask off her, but we need to get her unconscious, or at least in a non-combating state." Link said, drawing out his bow and arrow. Hopefully, since the Fierce Deity mask was aligned more with shadow, a Light arrow would hurt it more than his sword would be able to.  
  
She charged at the group at a wild pace; swinging both her scimitars, dispatching the group again. Link frowned: the Fierce Gerudo was moving far too fast for him to aim at, and with him needing to be always on the move to avoid her attacks he wouldn't have much time to launch the arrow. Subduing her would be the first step; playing the Song of Healing (then pulling the mask off) would be the second.  
  
Link had to forget about the arrow idea as he pulled up his shield, just in time to block the upcoming attack in the nick of time. However, he had to cry out in pain as the remaining cuts in his arm reopened again. She kept slashing at his shield, knowing he wouldn't last for ever, when she had to back-flip.  
  
Lowering his shield to see what happened, he saw Nabooru in a low stance, with her scimitars pointing towards the ground. Apparently she tried to swipe at the Fierce Gerudo's legs, but with the Fierce Deity mask equipped, her senses were strong enough to detect the low attack.  
  
Two of the other five tried a double team attack, one on each side of her. That appeared futile as she flipped her scimitars around into a stabbing grip instead of a thrusting one, and positioned her arms so that each attack was blocked.  
  
Link nodded at that. 'Effective', he thought, 'the swords held at that help give extra reinforcement to the defence and her arms are close enough to protect her from a frontal or back attack.' While she was with her swords locked in a strength contest, the Gerudo which that had one of her scimitars melted tried a jump attack to the Fierce Gerudo's back. That too proved futile, as she just released two blasts at point blank at the two Gerudo (sending them flying with the only thing remaining of their swords being the hilt) and rolling forward, she threw an energy blade at Link to keep him occupied then blocked the Gerudo's attack.  
  
Link was grateful about fighting Kotake and Kaome right now. Using the Mirror shield, he angled it so that the blast was deflected back, and with a grunt of satisfaction, heard that it had connected.  
  
She was surprised by the sudden attack back that the Gerudo in the sword lock managed to get three swipes in. Scowling, she sent Link a glare that pretty much said 'messing with me was a wrong move, buster'.  
  
Enveloped with such strong desires of combat, success, winning and right now rage, Link knew that a flaw of the Fierce Deity mask was that it did not allow you to speak. But the message was sent across, and with the frightening face markings, the meaning was amplified a dozen fold.  
  
Link was not frightened, however. He had fought Ganon, Majora, Twin-Rova, The Four Giants and even himself (Dark Link) that he was not frightened of any menacing looks anymore. That trick doesn't work on him anymore. Even though he was not frightened, he was still worried.  
  
For now, Fierce Gerudo had focussed her attention on him now, just throwing energy blades at the others to keep them at bay. Link could not afford to damage his right arm anymore, so he settled for dodging. And he also had to run, too.  
  
Right now, he was running in circles, zigzagging when she became too close for comfort. He wasn't getting anywhere, as all he was hoping for was that she would run out of mana and once she stopped throwing energy, he would be able to shoot her with a light arrow.  
  
She was not tiring.  
  
That was not a good sign.  
  
Why wasn't it? It was because Link was tiring.  
  
However, Link didn't win all those battles he did in the past by just following one attempt to the end. He right now knew that this idea won't work, and it was proven so by when she managed to score a hit against his back.  
  
Even when he fell to the ground, she didn't relent for a second. Using his sword, he tried to deflect as many attacks as possible, and Nabooru as well as four Gerudo tried to attack her from behind and the sides. When it wasn't working, Link tried a desperate move.  
  
"Jump back!" He cried, using his shield hand to search his sack of masks for just one particular mask. The four jumped back as told, with Nabooru a bit hesitant, but she did follow his command and taking five steps back, went into a ready stance along with the others, in case the Fierce Gerudo noticed chose to attack them.  
  
Link tried to crawl back on his back just for a bit more space, but she did not even give an inch. Finding the mask he wanted, he quickly donned it and gave a mental thought of 'explode'.  
  
It worked perfectly, with the sudden attack knocking her back, and taking the Blast mask off quickly (and donning the bunny hood back again) he muttered something quietly, leaving a glowing ball behind and charged towards her for a hit.  
  
While she was still stunned, Link glanced at the others to check how well they'll fight. The two Gerudo that were in her sword lock had singed arms, and it seemed that there was pain when they were holding their fallen comrades' weapons. One was panting heavily, but trying to keep it in so that her vision didn't bounce up and down, one had a bleeding waist (Link thanked the Goddesses that it didn't cut her clean into two) and another was out cold with the rest. Nabooru was tiring, along with him, and it didn't look like they would be subduing her if this held out too long.  
  
"Nabooru, wait at the glowing sphere, alright?" Not waiting for an answer, Link and the Fierce Gerudo went back into their deadly game of tag. When he saw Nabooru was in position, he ran by the glowing ball (with the masked Gerudo following) and shouted "Farore's Wind!"  
  
The teleport spell worked perfectly - as her prey had suddenly disappeared, she had to stop, and with him now behind her, was able to give a hard slash, breaking the armour behind her. Nabooru wasted no time to commence her own attack, and with panting Gerudo helping her, he jumped back, targeted his opponent and released the Light arrow.  
  
Fortunately for him, it hit, and even better, his idea worked. The Fierce Gerudo gave off a silent scream of pain, and the others kept pounding her with her attacks.  
  
"By Nayru, thank the lord that worked," he said. "Just keep her in a tight grip, and make sure she won't be able to wriggle out!" All five Gerudo worked at that, Nabooru holding her in a head-choke position, one twisting her arm to prevent her from firing a energy blade at them, one pushing her down and using her knee like Link did previously to pin her to the ground, and the remaining two pointing their swords at her face to prevent her from escaping that way.  
  
Whipping out his ocarina, he played the Song of Healing.  
  
With the tune drifting through the chamber, some of the knocked out Gerudo relaxed their stiffened muscles. Most troubled minds cleared, with the song purging most fears, spites and worries. For the Gerudo being pinned down, she stopped struggling, and slowly, the armour and odd tint in the blade seeped back, heading towards the head, and it all dropped off, with the Fierce Deity mask lying up ahead.  
  
Seeing that trouble fixed, Link blew a puff of air up to clear his bangs, and once he reattached his ocarina back to his belt, promptly fainted.  
  
Link groaned. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was still black. "What hit me?" He managed to groan out.  
  
He really wasn't expecting an answer. "It was something better than what might hit you in the future." Weird response, Link thought.  
  
"Odd as it may sound, Hero of Time, something worse is threatening to come than what you have experienced before." Turning around, Link saw what appeared to be a glowing figure. By the voice and general shape, he knew it was a female, but other than that, he had no clue.  
  
"It matters little right now on whom I am. What you have to worry about is the Second Seal." 'Okay', Link thought, 'she can read minds. But what is the Second Seal?'  
  
"I shall tell you soon enough about the Second Seal. Right now, I am not reading your mind, even though I have the capability to. I am in your mind. And for now, I suggest you wake up." With that, she started to fade away, and Link started to feel what appeared to be a very rough roller coaster ride.  
  
"Hey kid, get up already!" Link groaned. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was still black. "What hit me?" He managed to groan out.  
  
He really wasn't expecting an answer. "It was something better than what might hit you if you don't get out of bed now."  
  
'That's odd', Link thought, 'I think that's not how it was supposed to go.' Rolling to face where the voice was coming from, he noticed that he was in a rough cloth blanket. Seeing two shapes, he identified one as Nabooru.  
  
"Hello there." Link mumbled. Seeing him respond, the other shape turned on the gas lamp, blinding him temporarily with light.  
  
Once he could see again, he saw Nabooru smiling, and the other figure, once she turned around, appeared to be.  
  
"Reza? What are you doing here?" Her scowl never seemed to leave her face. She muttered something, and then flicked his nose. Link growled, and was about to shout something that probably would have been rude when Nabooru cut in.  
  
"What she said 'thank you for helping me back then, and don't be surprised by my attendance - unlike what you may think, there is honour among thieves." Link raised an eyebrow. He helped her? Since when? And he said exactly that.  
  
"I helped her? Since when?" If it was possible, her scowl deepened slightly, but her face seemed to be tinted with. shame?  
  
"Who do you think you were fighting with back in the central hall?" she replied, a bit stiffly, biting her lip in self-depreciation. Link's eyes widened.  
  
"You were the one bearing the Fierce Deity's mask?" No wonder she was in the crate - probably hid it there, though that doesn't really explain why she was talking about a flint.  
  
"I noticed that it felt. awkward, so I tried to see if the thing would burn - it didn't burn, and if it did I would have put it out, anyway - but it sprayed some sort of dust at my face." 'Oh, so that explains why she sneezed, I guess', Link thought. "It seemed to be almost 'calling', so that's why I put it on." Well, that was a good a reason Link would ever have required. No one would have believed ReDeads roamed where people flocking from store to store would have been.  
  
Trying to lighten the mood a bit, Link cheerfully said "Well, that explains why that thing fought so single-mindedly." Nabooru smiled a bit more, Reza cracked a smile as well, but it was also showing a bit of indignation as she flicked his nose again.  
  
"Well, you better rest up properly. Since you've been asleep for about two days, you should feel rather hungry tomorrow. Luckily for you, we're holding a ceremonial banquet." Nabooru pushed Reza back slightly before she would flick his nose again.  
  
Once the two left, Link was left to wonder why they were holding a banquet anyway.  
  
Nabooru was right about him being hungry the next day. They had presented back the three items he did not manage to obtain (two because he didn't have time, one because he fainted first). Before, he either ate a lot, or skipped eating for days on end, mainly because he could not find enough food in the place. Today was no different from the food-skipping days, except for that he exerted himself further than he usually did. Fighting a demon enhanced Gerudo would have tired anyone.  
  
The Gerudo seemed to be dressed a bit more formally, despite what many would think. For instance, they were wearing arm bracers, all of them (child and warrior alike) had to have their hair tied up in a similar fashion. What Link thought were the higher ranking Gerudo wore a bandoleer bearing crests sewn into it. But other than that, they were pretty much the same.  
  
If Link would have paid a bit more attention, he would have realised Gerudo dining etiquette was almost non-existent. The furthest they went was to chew with their mouths closed and not point cutlery at other people, but that was as far as it went. Children could bend over the table and pick up food with their fingers and the adults nearby wouldn't reprimand them. Link really didn't care - they were feeding him with food, a lot of food, and so why complain?  
  
After the lunch, he was brought by a Gerudo guard to the central room, the one where he had fought in. Within the space of two days, the Gerudo had managed to clean up the small blood stains on the floor, replace any of the broken furniture and laid a procession carpet on the ground. Link was told to walk on the carpet, and following the blue fabric (Link found that kind of odd, for everywhere else it was red), stopped at the base of a impromptu stage. On it was Nabooru, Reza, and some other Gerudo with a lot of crests on her bandoleer. Looking at her, it was obvious the lady was trying to hold back a frown.  
  
"From what High Sister Nabooru told me, earlier you had slain our leader Ganondorf. For that, many of us did not appreciate you and accept you to our customs. You had taking the test to prove your worth, with hopes that those that were resentful towards you would at least respect you. From previous three days, it was said with seven witnesses that you did more than that. You had prevented one of our Sisters from being in a war-hungry form, and aided in removing that problem, thus saving many of us. From the choices of the High Sisters, we welcome you to our society, mal- Link." The Gerudo around clapped at that, but Link could feel that it was well rehearsed. 'Oh well, can't complain. I still find it odd that they use male as a degrading term, when they follow a King, not a Queen.'  
  
Just after the applause ended, Reza stepped forward. "As he had helped me from the mistake I made, by Gerudo honour, I shall follow him wherever he goes in case there is the requirement of aid in combat." That said, she took another step to get off the stage and stood just slightly behind him. Some of the Gerudo were surprised at her statement and action - to be follow behind an outsider was to mean that you shall abide most of his requests and help him when the time came, just to pay off a debt.  
  
While they were surprised, Link was stunned. "Are you sure of that? I'm going to be travelling all across Hyrule, and sometimes into Termina." Reza was slightly worried about that, since she didn't know what by the Goddesses Termina was, but kept the strict face and nodded.  
  
"Do not question the honour bounds of us Gerudo." She muttered to him. Link felt like frowning and smiling at the same time when she replied. Since he would have to fight, there would be some creatures she didn't know exist, and it would be hard to explain why a girl about his age was tagging along with him and save him the embarrassment. Then again, at least he won't be alone anymore. Link managed a smile at that. 


	4. Attack on LonLon Ranch

A/N: Thank you for your reply, Hyliansage and H7. Yeah, I written action/adventure as the main genre, I mean it. Damn it. stupid Word, keeps setting the language to English US when I set default to UK. Oh yeah, Fanfiction.net seems to have a problem of interpreting the . . . and reading it as just a single dot. Chapter 4: Attack of Lon-Lon Ranch  
  
"I spy with my little eye, something that begins with-" Link was cut short when Reza promptly cut him off with "sky".  
  
"Okay, I spy with my little eye, something that-" She cut him off again with "field".  
  
Link was bored. Reza was grumpy. Since he had returned Epona to Lon- Lon Ranch after going to Termina (he deemed it was not safe anymore for her), and that Reza doesn't know how to ride, so it would have been stupid to lend her a Gerudo stallion. Already out for two nights, they had to travel over to Kakariko Village for reasons Link only knew.  
  
Last day, Link found that Reza was not one of the early people. She kept grumbling as she slouched from one spot to another, slinging her scimitars over her back and grabbing a sack full of supplies, she trudged off, bumping into a few people in the way, muttering her apology for a while then bumping into the walls afterwards.  
  
Right now they only had enough provisions for one more meal (Link was disheartened at that) then would have to rough without, unless they found some edible berries on the way. While Link was trying to entertain (albeit poorly) himself and Reza with the game of 'I spy', he was using it to cover up what he was thinking.  
  
"I spy, with-" He was cut short again when Reza yawned, then replied with "field". He was really too bored to complain with the game; Reza was really too tired to bother.  
  
What Link was thinking of was what Reza had said earlier on. She said that she had felt something awkward with the mask. That led Link onto two things. He could feel the omnipotence of it, since he already could wield magic with devastating or miraculous effects. That either meant two things: one was that Reza was one of the gifted few in all of Hyrule that could wield magic, much like the Sheikah. With the Sheikah it was really only a handful that could even touch magic, even less that could use it to its full extent. The other possibility was that the Mask was a lot more powerful than he thought; being able to call people who didn't even believe that magic existed. That was the reason why he was travelling over to Kakariko village, all he had to do was find a Sheikah proficient in the arts of wizardry, then try and hold back the Masks' powers.  
  
'Hopefully this would work,' Link thought, while outwards he was rambling on with another redundant game of I spy (the answer was grass this time). 'If anyone accidentally equips any of the harmful masks again, I'll know that this would be my entire fault.' Link nearly let loose a bitter laugh at that. Giving passage to Ganondorf to the Sacred Realm - it was his fault. Not saving the Great Deku Tree in time - it was his fault too. Not being able to fix all the problems that Majora's Mask did - that was his fault as well.  
  
'Ho hum,' he wondered, in an attempt to lift his mood higher, 'I hope that they can seal in the powers. I don't think many people would be very happy if they accidentally wore the stone mask (Goddesses know that the soldier was very unhappy), or would be in any good shape if they accidentally activated the Blast mask.' Link tried to keep his thoughts away from how they would feel from the shape-shifting masks.  
  
"I spy, with my little eye, something that begins with W." Link raised his head and changed his view from the road to Reza. She didn't interrupt him this time.  
  
"Huh? Oh, wall." Link smiled.  
  
"Hah! You're wrong this time! I was thinking of walkway... wait a minute, a wall?" Reza raised an arm and pointed towards a ring of stone just a bit out of view from the hilly terrain. Link smiled even deeper.  
  
"Hey cool! Lon-Lon Ranch isn't that far away! Come on, I could teach you how to ride there and buy a few supplies! You can even see my friend Malon! I doubt you'd see Talon since he sleeps so much, and you may not like Ingo since he's a bit rude..." Link's thoughts drifted a bit from that. Reza cracked a smile at him.  
  
"Yes, nothing excuses the thought of food to you, doesn't it?" Link blinked.  
  
"Huh?" He responded intelligently.  
  
"After telling me about this... In-go person, you started mumbling about half the delicacies you ate in the Fortress and a lot more on what I don't know." Link would have complained about the problems faced from living life outside society and civilisation, but the sounded of someone singing interrupted his thoughts and he smiled again.  
  
"There, we're pretty close to the Ranch now! I'll race you to the entrance - it's the one with a flag banner above it." Sprinting down the ground, he smiled when he heard the distinct clack of her scimitars bumping against each other. 'No Gerudo refuses a challenge.'  
  
He won anyway, since he knew where the gate was, but didn't have to wait long before she appeared, flicking him on the nose for some reason (probably beating her). As they were entering, Link asked her why she kept doing that.  
  
"I do that when I am irritated at you."  
  
"What would happen if I had a runny nose?"  
  
"Then I'll flick your ear instead." She proved her point by flicking the tip of his pointed ears, making him scowl at that. His ears were more sensitive that the rounded ears of the Gerudo, so didn't really appreciate it.  
  
When they entered, Reza seemed astounded by the number of horses there were in the Ranch. As Link had remembered before, there were two horses running around the track, with the rest grazing inside the corral. Malon was inside the corral as usual, singing her custom song, Ingo was near the cow barn as usual, and carrying what appeared to be a bucket of... animal waste products, Talon was not to be seen, probably still snoozing with the chickens (Link always wondered how he never seemed to get typhoid).  
  
Malon stopped singing and smiled when Link drew closer, garbed in his usual green clothes and heavy equipment. She waved him over, but her smile faltered slightly when she saw bob of red follow Link, appearing to be one of the Desert folk. Just like Link, the girl was also armed with heavy equipment, though it only appeared to be just two oddly curved swords.  
  
"Hi Link." She warmly greeted him, opening her arms in a welcoming manner. "Who's your new friend?" She was slightly surprised when Reza snorted at that.  
  
"Heh, 'friend' is such a... overrated word." She replied dryly. Malon didn't really have a response for that, so she just nodded lightly. Dragging Link and Reza along, she shown them around the place, to each and every single horse, visiting all the cows, and finally all the chickens (Talon included, but not as a chicken). Link was unfazed by the numbers - he saw them all before, but it looked like there were more calves this time. Reza had never seen so much domesticated animals in one area in her entire life, so was a bit frazzled from the experience. There are not much animals that can be domesticated in the intense heats of the Desert.  
  
Lunch was a simple matter - once Talon woke up, he helped Malon make some sandwiches, filled up three cups of Lon-Lon milk, fried a dozen eggs and after that went back to close the door before the cuccos could leave.  
  
"You know, I believe you would be able to taste the food if you ate it a bit slower." Malon chuckled with an amused smile. Reza was prodding the fried eggs with her fork, making sure Link ate his first before she ate hers (she accidentally ate something that resembled the shape, and ended up bedridden for a week). Link grunted, proving her heard her, and just slowed down by a bit.  
  
"So, is there anything new with the ranch?" Link questioned after he devoured a sandwich within three bites. Malon frowned slightly and paused for a moment.  
  
"Well, there have been more attempts to steal the horses in the past few days, but thankfully those thieves are pretty much cowards. When the horses go all angry at them, they scoot. The ones that don't usually run after Ingo waves a pitchfork and torch at them. Other than that, it's nothing more than the feeble break-ins they try." Reza raised an eyebrow at that.  
  
"Back in the Desert," she said after swallowing a bite of her sandwich, "if someone steals something off one of us Gerudo, the person is punished, unless he was allowed to steal it." Malon sighed.  
  
"Yes, I guess we also follow that type of rule, except for that since we live out far, there usually is no one around to help us find those that try to steal from us. Also, they always run before we are able to see their faces. All we know is that they work in a team of three." Reza nodded at that - the reason why the Gerudo were able to operate as such was because they were an effective working community.  
  
"Well, since we have quite a lot of time, I guess we could help you. After all, you did help feed us this lunch, and did offer to house us for a few days, I guess it is polite that we offer help in catching those thieves." Link said, pulling out his sword and doing a mock battle in mid air.  
  
Malon smiled, and nodded.  
  
"Arise, Hero of Time, it will not do for you to lay inactive, even in sleep." A voice just echoed through Link, jolting him out of his state of sleep.  
  
"Uh... do I know you?" He asked, staring at the glowing figure again. The lady seemed to have missed a beat, muttering something that sounded along the lines of 'ungrateful brat'.  
  
Repositioning herself, she replied. "Yes, you have seen me before; I was the one who alerted you earlier in your dreams about the Second Seal." Link nodded as his eyes widened in comprehension.  
  
"Ah... yes, I remember that. Uh, what did you mean, by the Second Seal?" The lady sighed and shook her head.  
  
"It is such a shame that people don't teach the younger generations about myths of the past. You do know what the Sacred Realm is, don't you?" Link nodded - hopefully she was talking about the one which Ganondorf was sealed in, otherwise he'd sound much more like an idiot, being the Hero of Time.  
  
"Yes, I am talking about the one that the Bearer of the Triforce of power is held in." She said, and added wryly on, "You don't sound much more like an idiot, if you regard the idiocy you already have." Link frowned at that.  
  
'Great,' he thought unhappily, 'I get to have a glowing lady with some sense of humour'. Realising that she could read minds again, he quickly cut in before she could retort: "So, the Second Seal is on the Sacred Realm?"  
  
The lady recomposed herself again, though even though her glow made it too hard to see her face, Link was sure her eye was twitching. "Yes, you are correct. The First Seal to the Sacred Realm is the Master Sword. The Second Seal is the will and requirement to get there."  
  
Link blinked at that. Why was that so important then?  
  
"I shall answer your questions later, for right now you have an offer to uphold." With that, she dissipated again, and Link woke up by the shove of Malon.  
  
"Link!" she whispered, glancing outside the window, "I think those thieves are back here again." Getting out of bed, he caught his sword that Reza chucked at him. Grabbing his shield and the rest of his inventory he thought he would need (stone mask, bunny mask, deku nuts and hookshot) they sneaked towards the corral, where the sound of disturbed horses seem to be coming from.  
  
"Okay, I guess we should just sneak up to them, then just pounce." Link suggested. Reza nodded in agreement. Malon held onto her staff tightly, taking a step back in case they got away.  
  
As they approached the three hidden figures, just right before they were about to jump on them, the three rolled underneath their attack. Malon was about to swing at one of them, when it drew something with the audible sound of metal and blocked the attack. Using its weapon, it shoved hard, and with Malon knocked a few feet back and with her weapon knocked out of grip, the three tried to run away again.  
  
Reza managed to block their escape with a swipe from her scimitars, with them falling back a bit to dodge. The taller one of the three rose what appeared in the darkness to be a spear to block.  
  
Link scowled. 'We're fighting three armed opponents, and they look like they know how to use their weapons.' Trying to blind side the burlier guy, he was blocked and the guy gave what felt like a Goron punch, knocking Link back a bit.  
  
As the three were darting around the place, Reza trying to stop them from escaping and Malon trying to calm down the horses, Link got up, crept as close as possible and with the shout of "close your eyes!" he threw two of the deku nuts on the ground.  
  
The stun attack did more than just stun them - it sent them flying. However with Malon heeding his command to slow and rubbing her eyes, and Reza near point blank and wincing as her ears ached, Link tried to find them again before they regained their composure.  
  
He searched a bit late as one of the smaller ones attacked him from the back, and when he turned to block, instinct told him to jump to prevent being speared by the tall one. They darted all over the place, and all Link could think about was 'I can't see them!' jumping back a bit and making sure that no one was too close, he cried out "Din's Fire!"  
  
With the momentary light, Link was able to see that all three wore the standard black thieves clothing. Reza, not missing a chance, Link saw that she tried to take another swipe at them by the flash of her blade.  
  
Link could see that the sword missed, but they all staggered from the light, and the one that she tried to hit seemed to have fallen down, even though it did not touch. Link understood the first part, but no one should feel in pain if the blade didn't even come close.  
  
"Malon! Go get some torches! We need to be able to see them!" Link cried as he rushed towards them again, not waiting for her answer and tried a small Din's Fire. Their clothes were singed slightly, and they staggered back again. When he tried to do that again, they jumped back, and trying to attack him while his sword hand was still touching the ground, they came very close, with the big guy's punch being blocked by his shield, same goes with the tall man's spear.  
  
Reza and Link were holding out well, but without being able to see the blasted thieves, he wouldn't be able to do much, as they hardly made a sound. When Malon returned holding four torches, she put three of them in the torch racks on the corral fence and came up close with the other torch.  
  
Using the blades of her scimitars, Reza reflected the light of the torch directly into the smaller person's eyes, and stumbling back, Malon, Reza and Link's eyes widened. These three weren't just wearing black, they were black!  
  
But that was not what made them so shocked. With the additional light (making the thieves cringe), Link could see that each of them were shaped like Ingo, Talon and Malon.  
  
"Uh, guys, I don't think we're fighting simple thieves anymore." Malon said uncertainly, to which Link gave a grim grunt of agreement.  
  
"They're Dark-something, I had to fight one that looked like me once before." Seeing as how these three copies didn't seem to like the light, he added on: "At least we're lucky here. Let's just try and keep them in the light."  
  
The three copies would have been worried if worry was an emotion they felt. Sealed off from the escape by three flashing blades and a torch (one of them Link's, the other two Reza's) and the other sides illuminating with the fires, the light was draining their strength at an unhealthy rate.  
  
Not being one to let them wait, Reza charged, swords flying furiously, as Malon timidly followed with her torch held as a weapon (which it really was, since it would deal more damage than any sword would). The blade managed to contact this time, and with it reflecting Malon's and the nearby torches' light right at the Ingo copy's face, she struck through, with him dissipating in smoke. Link wasted no time doing the same with the Dark Talon, stabbing it with his Gilded Sword, pulling it out and using the Mirror shield to full capacity, removing him too. No one had to worry about the Malon copy as the total amount of light was enough to make her fade away.  
  
With them gone, the horses calmed down a bit, and Malon released a heavy sigh. "That was frightening." Link frowned as he was thinking 'You have no idea, Malon, you have no idea. But what are they doing here?'  
  
The next two days passed as a breeze, with Talon being grateful for their removing the thieves (Malon didn't elaborate that they weren't Hylian), supplied Link and Reza with enough milk and food to last for at least two weeks. Malon repaid her gratitude by first teaching Reza how to ride (Link's nose was flicked enough times then for laughing), then by letting Link borrow Epona and another horse for Reza to ride on.  
  
"It's a nice day, isn't it?" Link said, smiling. Reza just raised an eyebrow. "I feel like singing right now." Reza's mouth twitched.  
  
"Country road, take me home, to the place, I belong,-" Link was cut short when Reza rode closer and in front of him, flicking his nose again.  
  
"What was that for?"  
  
"You're scaring the horses, stop it."  
  
A/N: This chapter might have been a bit drawn out, and I apologise if you felt that. The song Link was singing was written by John Denver, and not a product of my imagination. Thank you. Oh yes, if any of you are medically adept, you'd know Talon won't get typhoid because chickens are immune to it (something with the chemicals made in their liver). He would get a lot of flees, though. 


	5. Ice Phantom

A/N: No problem H7. It's nice to know I have a continuous reader, given my lack of experience in dealing with writing (unless you count English essays)  
  
Chapter 5: Ice Phantom  
  
Reza's left eye twitched. "So, we're going to Kakariko to meet these... Sheikah" When Link nodded it twitched again. Link looked at her apprehensively.  
  
"There's nothing wrong, right?" It would have been a great shame to him if he were to lose his travelling companion just after eight days of knowing her.  
  
She stared at him flatly. "If you had taken the time to study a bit deeper into history, you would have noticed that the Sheikah and the Gerudo had fought each other up until thirty years ago."  
  
Link stared in a bit of disbelief. "You're not older than thirty years old... right?" Reza's eye twitched yet again as she flicked his nose, and for good measure knocked him off his horse.  
  
"I'd take that from experience as a no, then." Rubbing the part of his body that contacted the ground first - which unfortunately had to be his face - he climbed Epona again (who was watching with great amusement) and asked with almost child-like simplicity "If you're not that old, why worry about some old war back then?"  
  
Reza sighed; it was plain as the nose on your face that Link really didn't understand how wars effect communication and relationships between people. Her thoughts didn't stop then even when she instinctively swung her scimitar to the side of her horse to knock the head off the Stalchid. Link wasn't even bothering about them - Epona was already doing a good enough job trampling them over.  
  
"You know, there is a tale of why the minor undead come out at night everyday, or every night." Reza said negligently. "It is said that these are the spirits of young children and babies that starved earlier on in the war, wondering when their parents would come home." Link raised a questioning eyebrow, but gestured through the dark for her to continue.  
  
"Some have also said that the reason for their numerous numbers was out of sheer pity. From the wails and cries of sorrow the children made before their last breath, their fears disfiguring their process towards the afterlife, some kind god gave them larger numbers so that they'll feel that they have a family at least. The occasional big Stalchid is done by a younger soldier, who was either slain before he could fix all his problems and died without knowing if anything would become right, or committed suicide to prevent himself from seeing anymore blood being drawn by his and any of his companion's blades." Link looked down, staring guiltily at where Epona had just walked over one of the Stalchids. Noticing that, Reza waved her hand to dispel and guilt he had.  
  
"Relax, it is said that their souls are put to rest if you manage to fight them and destroy them. Once they have disappeared, some stories say that the soul held within will manage to travel to the afterlife properly this time, knowing that there are people out there now trying to protect their own families and their country from what threatens them. Odd way of finding that out, really, but so says the stories." Reza finished as she booted one of the bigger one's heads off and left it scrambling around swiping the air in front of it.  
  
Link guessed that it would explain the Captain's Hat. After awakening the thing (he really didn't know what the Captain was - an overgrown Stalchid?) and fighting it, it had said something about fighting for too long, and wishing for Link to dismiss it and all of its soldiers that are loyal even after death. Possibly they were one of the tormented like souls that Reza had been talking about.  
  
When they had reached Kakariko village, the sun had just arisen from its deep slumber and regained its position in the sky where the moon had once followed. Progressing up the steps, Reza was a bit apprehensive of leaving the horses behind.  
  
"Relax, Epona isn't going to leave a friend of hers behind, and she usually comes to the call of Epona's Song. They're smart horses." Epona neighed in agreement. Reza shrugged her shoulders as they continued past the Clock soldier (who was trying to interest them in buying sundials, or hearing his special formula of figuring out what minute it was from the position of the sun in the sky), for Link knew horses better than she did, so there really was no point in complaining.  
  
One of the things Reza found humorous of this village was that there seemed to be cuccos all over the place. It was... peculiar to have the owner of them being allergic to them, but what could she say about Sheikah customs?  
  
"Ah, the cuccos got loose again." Link noted, picking up a wandering cucco nearby and passing it to Reza. Holding it uncertainly, she followed him. He picked up another, and taking the cucco he gave Reza let them loose inside the enclosed in area.  
  
The lady recognised Link's face, and first politely greeted him, then wished for him to gather the remaining cuccos. Link nodded, being the courteous kid that he was, and with Reza in tow, they went to get the remaining ones.  
  
"It's odd, isn't it? These cuccos keep going to the same places as I find them every single other time, and why don't the Carpenter brothers" Link jerked a finger over to one of the big guys running along the beam for what was going to be the Archery Shop "help build a better fence?" Link's question went unanswered, as Reza was eyeing the people who were eyeing her with a wary eye. Since Link carried his weapon around, she doubted it had anything to do with carrying two deadly swords, but more to do with that she was Gerudo.  
  
It was particularly annoying when a blue-haired boy with green eyes pointed at her and whispered to an old lady. She quietly replied back, and with him nodding, he replied animatedly, giving her a cheery smile. It contrasted well with the stares she was receiving from the old lady.  
  
"What did I tell you?" She murmured quietly to him, shooting some of them deadly glares that made them go back to what they were doing. "I may not have lived those thirty years, but some of these geezers did." She was about to talk on, except for something interrupted her, and raising her head in thought, looked back at Link.  
  
"Did you feel that?" She whispered urgently.  
  
Link blinked. "Feel what? Are you talking about the wind? Yeah, I felt that."  
  
She scowled at him and flicked his nose yet again. "No, you idiot, I'm talking about that feeling of being up in high altitudes. It is cold, cruel and sharp." Link sucked his index finger, stuck it up in the air and paused for a moment. A shake of his head was his answer.  
  
Earlier on Link had told her about his use of magic, and she couldn't really say that she didn't believe him when she saw him use Din's Fire against the shadowy thieves at Lon-Lon Ranch, and that would also explain why he had carried around such a tremendously powerful mask. She felt mildly disappointed when he said he could only cast three spells, but at least he could do some nifty arrow attacks. Still, if he could not sense anything like what she was feeling, it probably was a figment of her imagination - but Reza kept her guards up anyhow.  
  
After they had gathered up all the cuccos again, Reza felt it again - it felt like morning fog, moist and still, unresisting, and at the same time felt like a blizzard, hard and biting, continuously barraging into you. Link said that he didn't feel it, but she was positive that she felt it. As they were walking towards the graveyard, stopping near the well, Link felt it too.  
  
"Um, Reza? You know that feeling of being up in a mountain that you talked about? I think I sense it too." Link was aware of a frosty feeling touching the edge of his awareness. He didn't know how Reza managed to sense this thing sooner than he did, but now he was starting to feel that feeling he associated with when he was first told by Navi to defeat the Queen Gohma. Except for that this one felt a bit... chillier.  
  
Link carefully drew out his sword with Reza following his lead, as he neared the well, feeling the frosty sensation become firmer. It seemed odd that there was no water inside anymore, though that could be explained by it being summer. Just as Link was about to descend down the ladder, something knocked him back.  
  
When it hit him, it had the same effect that touching the ice in Snowhead have. Fortunately it only glanced off him, but with his legs frozen, Link was having a problem to free himself. Drawing his sword to help bash the ice, he saw Reza (only Reza - it appeared that when everyone saw that he was suddenly frozen to the ground they ran for cover - smart people) seemed to be dodging around, but from the confusion on her face he could tell she could not see this... ghost.  
  
Quickly drawing the Lens of Truth, he was most surprised by what he saw. It appeared to be some floating old man, surrounded in a layer of ice. From experience, he knew that this thing was probably dead and from the numbness still found in his feet he guessed it could shoot ice at things.  
  
Link frowned: one of the perks of working solo was that there were no communication problems. How was he to tell Reza where to strike? Waving a finger in the middle of mid-air won't really point out where the thing was. But by seeing her dodging the attacks - whether she could sense it (after all, she said she felt it earlier on) or just by sheer luck, he tried to see if her gift or luck would last that long.  
  
"Attack him over there!" He shouted, pointing his hand to what appeared to be a blank spot in the air. Reza rolled under another ice blast, and jumping up, took a slash at where she thought Link was pointing at.  
  
Amazingly, she did hit the old man.  
  
Once the ghost was hit, Link was sure that he wouldn't need the Lens of Truth anymore, from seeing Reza being able to dodge and strike with better accuracy. Joining in the fray, they started hacking at him, jumping back when he created a radius blast that frozen anything, dodging here and there, and continue to keep on hacking at him.  
  
Link smiled, whenever the ghost would try to create that area effect thing, its eyes would glow for a second blue. That was enough for them to know when to dodge. And with his obvious (if not exaggerated) hand swings, they could tell where the attack was going to hit.  
  
Link's smile turned into a frown. Even though the ghost was following the same, stupid pattern, the time of its eyes glowing and started to drop and it was now moving at near speeds that even Link with the bunny hood would find hard to fight against. Even worse, any time they tried to strike it now, it seemed to create some ice armour, drift back slightly then shoots even faster ice blasts.  
  
"Damn it!" Reza cursed, the ghost shooting and managing to score a hit this time. Smashing the ice that surrounded her legs before it could spread any higher, she rolled yet again, but with the ghost predicting where she was about to land, was hit again. "You can create those big fire balls, why don't you use them!" Link shook his head.  
  
"If it was about ten minutes ago, when it was moving slowly, I could have hit it, but it would jump out of the radius even before I call the spell." Link didn't give up on the idea of using fire, and locking an arrow into position, he tried to train his eye on the super fast moving ghost, and he found that he kept missing.  
  
'This would have been a lot easier if I still had my fairy partner' he thought, dodging another blast narrowly. He was running short of arrows ('I wish Lon-Lon Ranch helped stock weaponry' Link mourned that loss, but really wasn't paying attention to that thought since keeping his body warmth seemed more dire), and while he still had plenty of mana to spare, casting Din's Fire would be too slow.  
  
"Stupid ghost!" He heard Reza cry out, trying to blindside it. It floated over her and luckily she managed to dodge out again.  
  
"It moves too fast! We really can't predict where it's going!" Link shouted over. It was a waste of breath to point out the obvious, as Reza could tell it was abnormally fast and moving in an erratic manner.  
  
Just then, while Reza was cursing under her breath and keeping the ghost occupied, Link felt something - it was not like the ghost's feeling, all damp and biting, but quite the opposite, with it feeling rather fiery and raging. It was small, but Link knew not to underestimate the value of size, physically and spiritually. Using his mind, he grabbed onto the fiery feeling to see what help it could be-  
  
-and dropped to his knees.  
  
Tears were leaking from his eyes now. It felt like someone decided to replace all his blood with molten lava, it coursing through him at a harmful rate. Link could feel something was stealing - no, borrowing, as it was only taking it in a gentle manner - his mana, and when he managed to open his eyes, through the pain discharged by his nerves and the roaring in his head, he could see through his tears that his Triforce mark was glowing brightly.  
  
Meanwhile, Reza was desperately trying to escape all that maddening blasts thrown at her. With Link pondering on how to fight it, she was trying to buy him some time.  
  
Suddenly, she felt something different - it felt like someone was requesting access, a feeling that some people get when they know someone is at their doors, even without hearing or seeing anything, and without anything better to do, accepted it.  
  
That was when she saw Link crumble to his knees. Worried that she did the wrong thing, she tried to deny its entry, pushing it back out, but it was far too strong. Undergoing the experience was like she was a cup - someone started pouring water into her, and poured over the edge while commanding that the water tension keeps it inside her.  
  
Anyone watching (and certainly many had been, through the windows of their safe haven) would have seen the blue glow surrounding Link, like it usually did when he was preparing for a spin attack. They would have seen it intensify, curling tighter against him, and if they bothered to look at Reza, see that an identical aura surrounded her. But it did not stay for long. Soon, it erupted into crimson flames, and all they would have seen after than was a red blur.  
  
Reza felt like someone was packing the heat of the Desert inside her, and allowing her to use it at her disposal. She was amazed that she could now outrun the blasted ghost, bouncing aside from its blasts like they were moving as fast as a snail, and was able to hit it this time. It managed to raise its protective ice armour in time, but even more surprising was the layer of fire surrounding her and her blade, allowing her to cut right through the armour, and cut right through the ghost.  
  
It screamed in agony, and floating to a higher point, a point it knew nothing could reach unless they could fly.  
  
Link watched, resisting the pain that was going to knock him unconscious to see Reza chop right through the armour she could not pierce before like a hot knife through butter. Seeing it go up, he was surprised to see Reza jump just as high scoring another hit, and when it jumped even higher, was disheartened that she could not reach it, even with all the roof jumping she tried (Link winced inwardly at the thought of how much he'll have to pay to replace the melted tiles). Suddenly, to Link's (and anybody who could keep track of such speeds) amazement, when she jumped this time, her aura expanded and flew - but it had the same shape as her!  
  
Reza scowled as it was too high for her to reach (she'll worry about the roofs later) when some sort of unknown source of information cracked open slightly. With the information leaking out of whatever holding it, and into her, she tried focussing the energies. It did the opposite of expanding her aura, but she didn't really feel like contemplating right then. Discharging it, she was surprised at herself at releasing a duplicate of herself, all made up of fire, right at the 'annoying snowball' and was a bit astounded when it started hacking away like she would have, then colliding with an almighty explosion.  
  
To Link down there, the explosion was not very loud, but the shockwaves was enough to knock him off the ground and send him flying aside. With the sudden intrusion of senses (sound being the main one of them) his flow of mana stopped. Link still felt like he was told to run through the Fire Temple without the Goron Tunic, but was fine aside from that. Reza however, once she touched back onto ground again, collapsed.  
  
"You did quite well," Link said to her prone form, picking her up (and getting the feeling of picking up hot coal) and carrying her as best as he could towards the Graveyard, "In fact, you did very well, for someone that I guess never used magic. I'll have to ask you about that later."  
  
Reza woke up to a headache. From her analogy of the ceiling above her, she guessed that she was underground. Her first guess was that she was still in Kakariko village, for she seemed to be able to hear the distant sound of someone playing the violin, and she did see a person on the roof, staring at the looming mountain nearby and playing a tune. Her second guess was that Link brought her down here. Where 'here' was, she'll have to wait for someone to explain first.  
  
A creak presented the sound of a wooden door opening. Turning her head (and groaning on the effort) she saw that it was Link, first looking a bit worried, then bright when he saw her awake, and the other weird blue haired kid, the one that kept smiling at her when she helped Link with the cuccos.  
  
"Ah, it's good to see you awake!" Link said brightly to her.  
  
"Ah, it's good to see you alive!" The creepy smiling boy said to her, waving. Reza frowned at him, and nodded to Link.  
  
"He's Malik, one of the Sheikah. He sometimes lives down here." The creepy boy Malik didn't miss a beat.  
  
"He's Link, one of your friends. He sometimes visits us down here." Feeling that justification was worth more than staying in the cosy bed, Reza went over, flicked Link's nose (for bringing Malik down here) and whacked the blue haired boy on his head (for obvious reasons). Rubbing his nose, Link continued.  
  
"Well, seeing you up and still going, I guess we could visit the magic wielding Sheikah now." She was about to respond when blue boy added on.  
  
"Well, seeing you up and still alive, I guess you could visit the Screaming Nightmares now." Reza scowled at the boy, which he returned a sunny smile with.  
  
"Why is he here, aside from living here?" She groaned to Link. He didn't have to respond, for Malik did.  
  
Bouncing up and down so that he could see Reza eye to eye (he was a head shorter than Link, and Link was a few inches shorter than her), he answered for Link, "Hi, I'm Malik. I'll be your guide down here."  
  
With that, he pulled a lamp off the wall, lit it and with a sheepish looking Link following, Reza followed.  
  
"Goddess help me, Goddess help us." She mumbled to herself, with Link, bearer of Farore's Triforce replying with "I believe they're trying."  
  
She finished it for him. "Just that they're not trying hard enough." 


	6. Malik's Emotion Masks

A/N: Hey there! I thank those that reviewed for their time, and might as well answer some questions right now. Yeah, Hyliansage, I do update fast, but it'll be slower now since school started. You're story is good, a bit more original than the usual Zelda fanfics. With the question about Reza being stronger than Link... maybe. I won't tell you yet, only that if you read Chapter 5 properly, you'll notice Link was the one supplying the power. Thanks. Chapter 6: Malik's Emotion Masks  
  
Even though Link had been here a couple of times before, he could not help but wonder how unbelievably amazing these caves was. Etched on the walls were a decorative pattern, inscribed words of the ancient language of the Sheikah people, following the walls and being exactly the same height above the ground everywhere - no flaw in the writings.  
  
But Link was amazed on how detailed the Sheikah were at keeping the roof the same height or the tunnels the same width.  
  
He was amazed how easy it was to think you're lost.  
  
As said, every single tunnel looked identical. Reza seemed dubious of Malik's navigating skills, and Link would have been, if he had not visited here before. Also, despite Malik's carefree and idiotic manner, he knew he could be trusted - though Link wouldn't have been ready to ask him to take care of his wallet yet.  
  
Reza didn't like Malik. Reza didn't trust Malik. Reza didn't mind Malik. The list could go on, but it would have been pointless if you simply said that Reza didn't trust him. She doubted it had anything to do with him being a Sheikah - though there was that possibility, since her first impression of him was of an annoying boy.  
  
It could have been the way he liked to bounce off the walls. Instead of walking like a calm, dignified person, he chose to rebound off the walls like some gymnast with too much sugar (though that could explain why he was).  
  
She was worried that she was xenophobic. She started off disliking Link, since he killed her King. She really didn't have any complete loyalty and patriotism towards Ganondorf, but her mother did. Being too young to understand what was going on in the world, she just clung to what her mother believed in. She clung even harder when her mother died in the line of duty, and with the interference of belief she thought it was those against her mother that was at fault, not Ganondorf for sending her out. When it was said that that puny little kid killed their great and near invincible leader, with that child single-mindedness she believed he was wrong. He was evil. He was the most perturbed person in the world that dared to go against the beliefs of an entire race. With three years to dwindle with those thoughts and no one bothering to change them, she was very glad to watch him get mauled by the Wolfos.  
  
However, with him taking the challenge face front and helping her from the mask, plus those days she spent with him, her started to ease off on her 'must destroy' list and sidled into her 'associates' list.  
  
"Oh well, blue boy might become tolerable with time." She thought. Tuning in back to the caverns again, the annoying patter that came from his mouth droned on and on. Her mouth twitched. "He might be with a lot of time."  
  
"See these walls? I can't really remember the name of the stone, but I know it's a very strong stone. Then again, most stones are strong, so it could be any stone. I do know some soft stones, though. I remember that in class the teacher used some white stone to write on the black board. It's called chalk, did you know that? I'm sure you do, especially you Link as you travel a lot, and you too Reza, since Gerudo school must be very neat. I never went to the Desert before, I suppose you could..."  
  
From the previous short visits to the Sheikah caverns, Link adapted to tune out most of what Malik said, and just lightly smile and nod when he turned his attention to you. He doubted anything said in his cheery mode was anything important.  
  
However, this was Reza's first experience with Malik - she didn't have the adaptation he had. "Hey blue boy, I... appreciate your attempts to fill in the silent gap, but can you please shut up!"  
  
Malik childishly pouted as he stared at his clothes. Sure, his hair was blue, as well as his trousers and the rim of his shirt, but that was no reason to distinguish him as blue. "That's not really nice, do all Gerudo file people by what they know! Hey, I also heard that the Gerudo uniform was also colour coded, is that really true? I never saw a Gerudo aside from you. Does everyone in the Desert have that type of skin colour? Must be really useful, since I usually get sun tans just from being out too long, and I'm not even in the Desert..." Reza groaned.  
  
Link slowed down a bit to match her pace. "Nice try, but usually nothing quietens him at all." Reza raised an eyebrow, to which Link nodded vehemently at. "It's true! He speaks and snores in his sleep. Nothing quietens him at all. It'd be a miracle if Death could silence him."  
  
After half an hour of what appeared to be walking in circles (Malik wouldn't tell them if they did or not, but Link guessed from his confused face that they did), they finally reached what appeared to be a central room.  
  
There were six people lounging in the room, two in idle conversation while they played a game of chess, one snoozing away on the couch, a middle-aged man going around turning on the gas lamps and another two kids kicking each others shins under the table, in the middle of a staring contest.  
  
Malik didn't miss a bit in his speech as he wafted through the numbers, waving to the chess players, giving the thumbs up to the one twiddling around at a gas lamp and ruffling the hair of the kids. Almost mechanically, the chess players waved back in synchronisation, the man nodding back and the kids raising their palms out for a high five. He only paused when the man finished turning on the lamps.  
  
"Hello pops." The man greeted his son back.  
  
"Hello. Are they friends of yours?" He said. Judging by the wary glances the man gave to Link and Reza, Malik guessed that he didn't see them before.  
  
"Yeah, I guess so. This is Link; he visited this place a couple of times before. She's Reza; she visited this place no times before." It was clear that his father was used to his son's antics.  
  
Malik waited for either his father, Link or Reza to say silent, but with Link usually quiet and expecting Malik to chat again, Reza awaiting what's going to happen next and his father deep in thought, it was obvious none of them were ready to talk fast. With his shoulders slumped he went off, the two other following him.  
  
In moments he was back to his cheery self, bouncing all over the place and trying to show them that he could walk on the ceiling for a second.  
  
After a while of going in circles again (Reza sarcastically added that they might as well camp in the middle of the tunnels, but with Malik taking it seriously, he said that it will pollute the entire caverns), they finally reached one of the larger rooms. Inside were a lot of arrow targets.  
  
He frowned slightly. Link could tell that the didn't really go to where he wanted to go ('Damn Sheikah', Reza thought grumpily, 'he can't navigate around his own home.') , but Malik made the most of it anyway  
  
Malik hopped in front of them and bowed. "Welcome to my humble abode. Please enjoy our complimentary water," he pointed to the water pump on the corner, "free snacks," what he pointed at appeared to be a bunch of sealed packets of... fats, "and not to mention our deluxe beds." A real disappointment, really, since what he was talking about was a feather bed that looked like it was set up as part of a horse racetrack and there were four very large palms leaves set up on the ground to act as beds.  
  
"Encore," Reza said flatly, as she clapped a slow rhythm "really, I mean it."  
  
Malik bowed extravagantly again. "I aim to please." Reza groaned.  
  
"What have I brought myself into..." she moaned to herself disparagingly. Link smiled.  
  
"Well, I believe it's something more fun than being stuck inside the Desert."  
  
She was sure whether that was an insult or just a statement. Just for the sake of it, she flicked his nose again.  
  
Sitting on his trampled bed, Malik 'oohed' and 'aahed'. "You know that they say that from a female, a sign of aggression can be sometimes safely interpreted as a form of affect-" He didn't get to finish it as Reza gave him one of her favourite death glares. Bopping him on his head first, she sniffed and with her nose held high, walked over to examine the arrow targets.  
  
Instead of arrows sticking all over the bulls-eyes, it was throwing knives instead. She guessed that using knives was his favourite form of fighting, and she could respect him for training hard at it. If her room was bigger than the usual stone-like chambers every Gerudo had, she would had practiced more sword skills than before.  
  
Link was right about having more fun than being inside the Desert - outside; there were more monsters to fight, though it was getting slightly dull as all she could do was practice against Stalchids every night. She was sure that she finessed her Gerudo sword spin down to the very last point of strength, altering slightly so she could charge forward two steps more but retaining the same - if not more - amount of strength in each strike.  
  
Communicating with others that did not have red hair and dark skin once was a problem for her. As merchants travelled across the great expanse of Hyrule Field, wishing to sell their wares (all useless, for who buys jewellery in the middle of nowhere?), she was used to giving each of them lengthy glares, only stopping when they left.  
  
She was pulled out of thought by her battle instincts. Ducking just in time, she turned around to see Malik in a throwing position. Looking back at the target, he scored a perfect bulls-eye.  
  
It was Link who told Malik off. "What by Farore did you do that for? You might have chopped off her ear!" Malik aired that thought away with a few waves of his hand.  
  
"Relax, I'm a Sheikah, and was trained to tell whether a person can fight or not. Besides, she still has a pair of ears, so why worry? I know though, do you want to visit the bestiary?" Link was about to argue again, but Reza cut him off first.  
  
"Why would you have a bestiary?" She asked. Malik shrugged.  
  
"Beats me, it was said that some old flap decided to start training wild, vicious beasts and make them tame, calm and loyal. Apparently it worked, and his 'project' spawned to become what we keep in the bestiary. I can show you a really cool trick there!"  
  
Both Link and Reza doubted there would be anything better to do, so they followed Malik again, Link apprehensive about the two dozen throwing knives Malik brought around.  
  
Amazingly, Malik got them there in five minutes instead of the thirty that Link was expecting (when Reza pointed that part out, Malik was adamant that he was not lost before, though a tinge of red could been seen on his cheeks). There were a lot of creatures inside, most of them comprising of black and white boes, with a few deku babas, the rest comprising of not-so-mad-anymore scrubs.  
  
Malik approached one black boe. "See? This one is harmless. Actually, they all are... actually, they all are not, since they can still fight when threatened, attack when annoyed, and take nips at you if you are disturbing their personal space. But other than that, they are quite relaxed around people, if not friendly. One thing I'm proud of is that I can tell that this one is friendly. The scrub over there snoozing is feeling a bit uncomfortable, probably has indigestion or something. You know I once tried to feed one a deku nut - it blew it back at me, so I guess it didn't like it..." Malik returned to his endless droning after a while.  
  
He pouted after five minutes of endless talking. Link and Reza's attention was now diverted to petting the boes, and it appeared very clear that they hadn't heard anything he said about creating special deku nuts that don't go out with a bang instantly.  
  
"You guys are no fun. Do you want to see our sparring ring then?" That certainly found Reza's attention - the ever vigilant Gerudo, striving to improve her own combat skills. Link nodded too, for despite that he usually didn't care about fighting much anymore, it would be wise to keep on training, especially if that odd lady in his dreams was right.  
  
*  
  
Malik's father grumbled as he led a group of four Sheikah warriors around the caverns, searching for his son. 'Blasted boy,' he thought irritably, 'why must he always get lost?' Exiting and searching around the graveyard to see if anything was found, he and his four companions heard a sound of metal ringing. Looking to where the sound was coming from, he pondered for a moment then groaned.  
  
'That's odd, no one booked that place... oh great... Kid, you owe me big for this.'  
  
Link was impressed - who would've thought that the sparring ring was right on top the windmill? He had no time to marvel about it as he rose his shield to block the first strike of Reza's modified Gerudo spin and flipped back to dodge the upcoming sweeps. She was moving like a tornado, so Link was hard pressed to dodge and block all of them.  
  
Yet even tornadoes have a few weak points, if you only know where. Crouching under a head swing, he used the pommel of his sword to thump her at her jaw. With her stumbling back a bit, Link forced on the offensive with a over arm strike.  
  
She blocked in time with her scimitars, and while the were in a sword lock, Link swung his right arm (shield included) around to knock her balance off, and with that plan succeeding, feinted another high attack, but swept at her shins, knocking them with the flat side of his Gilded sword, and using a foot to apply light pressure to her stomach, pointed his sword at her throat.  
  
If you begin a fight with a Gerudo, end it like a Gerudo.  
  
Reza conceded defeat, her gesturing so by dropping her swords. Malik at the sidelines clapped in approval of the battle, a slightly surprised look on his face and walked in towards the ring.  
  
"You two are very good. I doubt either of you would match up to me, of course," He said, patting his shoulder as he showed his great humility, "but still very well."  
  
"I don't think that you would be able to match up to me." Reza scoffed, pulling herself from the ground. Malik raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Is that a challenge?"  
  
"Why, yes, I think it is."  
  
"I doubt that you can beat me in your battered up state." He pointed to the bruising at her legs.  
  
"I'm no idiot; I know when I can not fight, so Link is instead." Link blinked at that.  
  
"Huh?" He asked intelligently, scratching his head and readjusting his cap. Malik shook his head. He might as well get to the heat of things.  
  
Tossing a throwing knife at Link, he charged once hearing the clang of the knife being deflected by Link's mirror shield. Pulling out a really long and thin dagger, he flipped over Link in attempts to strike in from behind. Link managed to track his movements and get Malik to back off with a swing of his sword.  
  
Though he was still slightly disoriented from the sudden attack, Link managed to get back into the swing of it. The battle had played out for over a minute, with Malik occasionally testing his defences with a throwing knife, charging in with that dagger of his and backing off when Link gave a wide swing.  
  
It was rather fairly balanced, when Link thought about it. As he had his shield, he had a greater protection, but that was countered by Malik's incredibly high speed from not being weighed down slightly. Malik could throw knives, yes, but once the knives had been released, from a certain distance it would have given Link enough time to dodge or block them. Malik could charge up close with his dagger, but since Link had a wider close combat range it hardly mattered, as it forced Malik to bounce back a bit.  
  
Link smiled. 'While, we're pretty much evened out, I still got more experience fighting against people." Charging again at Malik, he waited for the tensing of Malik's leg muscles, but suddenly turned around, rolled right underneath him and letting Malik use his shield as a spring board. The only thing was that as his shield was strapped to his arm; he could tell where the weight was focussed at and leapt after Malik, scoring a light hit against his shoulder.  
  
"You're pretty good, so good in fact that I must pull out my trump card. You'll never now what hits you now." Malik smiled, as he delved slightly into the folds of his clothes and pulled out... a mask?  
  
It was a light blue simple mask, one that you might have expected in theatres, except those ones were white. Malik slipped it onto his face and Link could tell it was showing the expression of confusion.  
  
He charged back into what Link imagined to be the previous routine, except for it changed a bit.  
  
"What by Din's fire?" Link swore under his breath, as his vision occasionally tuned in and out, distorting his measure of distance. As he could not measure the attack timing properly anymore, Malik was scoring a few hits.  
  
He was lucky once though, when Malik accidentally tripped on his feet and Link managed to ram him with his shield. Behind the mask, Link was not able to discern whether or not Malik was frowning, but he guessed that he was.  
  
With arms as deft as a magician, he quickly replaced the mask with another one showing a bubbly expression. As they charged at each other again, Link found that his body wasn't reacting as he wanted it to. Most of his brain wasn't reacting as he wanted it to either, with just a small part screaming at the rest that this was wrong. For each block and counterattack, the small part found that it was putting less energy into itself. Malik didn't seem to be stumbling on his own feet, so it didn't seem that Link would manage a few lucky hits.  
  
The rest of his brain was feeling... relieved. It felt like a child again, told that he can eat as much sugary foods as possible and no one would tell him off for it. Therefore, he was feeling a bit distracted, and that tiny part of his mind was struggling to get back into control.  
  
It finally did for a short moment, and Malik not expecting the sudden brute attack from the weakening and half-hearted attacks he was getting a few moments ago, was struck dead centre. Flying back, he took that mask off in favour for a pouting one, and then switched it with a crying mask.  
  
Link felt the effects almost instantly. They fought for two of their getting nowhere cycles, when Malik hopped two steps back and simply stared at Link. The feeling received was urging him to give up. It pretty much was whispering into his ear.  
  
'This is futile,' the imaginary voice cried, Link almost visualising a body sitting on the ground and crying into his/her arms, 'what are you fighting for? It was supposed to be a simple sparring match, are you really sparring now? Where has the happy, supportive boy in green gone to be replaced with this battle-hardened, uncaring man?'  
  
Link sighed, as he was to concede defeat. "I guess I admit-" Link didn't finish it yet as the tiny voice that still was battling these outside emotions.  
  
'Wait a minute, wait a minute, I SAIDWAIT A MINUTE!' it pretty much cried out. 'Look at this from an outside perspective, without all these emotions. Every time he puts on a mask, you feel something different, and if the rest of your brain feels like co-operating with me, I think we would see a correlation between the expressions on it and the emotions felt. So, all you have to do - blast that sad feeling, shoo! - is to remove his mask.'  
  
"I guess I admit... it's not working!" Link charged again, though lying through his teeth as most of his mind was wracked in sobs. Malik was taken off guard, and with a light swipe of his sword, knocked the mask off Malik (though accidentally punching his face). Immediately the sad thoughts left, and given a slight moment, his mind worked better.  
  
"Very impressive," Malik said approvingly, rubbing his sore cheek, "most people that this trick worked on gave up. I'm surprised that you figured it out before you gave up." Reza came up close from the sidelines and examined the masks.  
  
Malik answered her questioning glance. "As Link had found out, these masks do have some emotion based magic within. It was passed down my line of family," he puffed up at that, "I just altered its magic a bit. The thing Link felt was me easing in some false emotions and feelings, like the confusion, joy and sorrow that you felt. The only problem with doing that is the dice-roll chance of me feeling the same thing as well. That's why I tripped when I used the confused mask."  
  
"Well, that explains a lot." Link muttered, stretching his arm out and back in continuously to make sure his judgement of distance was back to normal.  
  
"Yes, I guess it does. There is another use that my good old great grand-pops made up was to almost mind-read anyone feeling that emotion strongly by wearing the matching mask. It doesn't work on the fake ones inputted though, it requires the real one." Reza glanced at him sharply at that - she was not too keen of anyone with the ability to pry into her brain.  
  
Malik seemed to have understood that. "I don't think mind-reading is the right word. I believe that it is really sensing what the person is going to do, just at a really high and sophisticated level."  
  
She relaxed slightly at that. "I guess that makes those masks special."  
  
Malik, looking proud about the masks ancestry, looked even prouder now. "Now, I tell you the thing that makes these things nearly perfect. It is something that I created." Link raised an eyebrow, but gestured for him to continue. "I told you before about the feeling of the tamed creatures, right? That it one thing I discovered and harnessed from the mask - the ability to sense the feelings of nearby creatures and people. It isn't that accurate," he deflated slightly, "but there is a higher chance of it being true than reading one's expression."  
  
Just then, Malik's father popped up the trap door at the edge of the windmill. Glancing at the masks his son was holding, he groaned yet again.  
  
"Ye lords don't tell me you used them." Seeing Link still flexing his arm to measure distance, he guessed that he was incorrect.  
  
"Relax pops, Link here managed to defeat me, even when I used them." A great tone of respect could be heard in his cheery voice. His father looked on in wonder, giving Link a long look before waving down.  
  
"Well, now that I found you lot - Malik, you got a bit of explaining to do, and don't give me the 'tunnels are really long' excuse, I know you got lost - we can now all go to visit the High Mages now." Malik looked a bit disgruntled.  
  
"Hah, I knew you were lost." Was Reza's remark just before she went down the door.  
  
"I was not!" He protested.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, and watching cuccos eat is fun."  
  
A/N: Sorry about the long time it took to update this chapter, first I had a mild writer's block (couldn't get my ideas down on paper) and school started (why must I learn languages?). Plus the fact I'm trying to beat my friend in Warcraft, and that leeched up a bit of my time as well. This chapter is slightly longer, but I hope you like it. 


	7. Lady of my Dreams

Chapter 7: Lady of My Dreams With someone else aside from Malik to guide them through the tunnels, it was a lot easier to reach one of the main halls.  
  
As Malik was silent this time, it was feeling a bit unnerving walking down the paths. Link decided to break the silence. "How did the Sheikah build such large rooms and identical tunnels before?" Malik's father glanced at him and smiled.  
  
"Well, we used the normal way. We hired a few outsiders to help dig a bit deeper down, but the rest was done by Sheikah hands. Most of it wasn't done by Sheikah hands at the same time." Malik nodded at that, to which Link gave a smart 'huh?'  
  
"The reason why nearly every room is perfectly angled and every tunnel is exactly the same is because it was all done of the same template. You're a smart boy, and I think the reason of how is close enough. To hint on, it's the reason why you came here, I believe." Malik gave Link a searching stare.  
  
After a moment of intense silence, he finally said something. "You came here to learn how to make tunnels?"  
  
After a moment of intense silence, he finally said something stupid.  
  
Reza felt inclined to whack 'blue boy', as she dubbed him on the head. Just to justify her actions, she flicked Link's nose for bringing her into this.  
  
"Um, no, I don't think I came to learn how to make tunnels, no." Link carefully replied. "I think what your father was talking about was about Sheikah magic."  
  
Malik blinked. "I thought that only people of the Sheikah can wield that type of magic. After all, there should be a reason why it is called that, I think."  
  
Link nodded. "See these masks?" He pulled out three random masks, waving them to emphasize his point. "They contain incredible magical power, just like yours, except these aren't specialised on emotions. I want to know if there is a way to hold back their powers so that it won't accidentally go off when someone uses it." Malik went close to examine the masks. He poked the one with a skull sign on it.  
  
"That's the Blast mask. If someone wears it, and thinks aggressively, it goes boom."  
  
Malik slowly pulled back his finger. "It goes... boom?"  
  
"Yes, it goes boom. Destroys anything around it, hurts the wearer and gives him temporary earaches and headaches. Let's just say I only used it when it was dire." Link winced at the memory and tenderly touched his ear to make sure it was still there.  
  
"Oh."  
  
The rest of the walk passed mostly in silence, Malik trying to edge away from the mask Link was holding by attaching himself to the wall.  
  
They finally reached another large room, which Link assumed was important since it had chandeliers. There were six people sitting on a raised platform in a semi-circle, most of them looking like your stereotypical grumpy old man. None of them were smiling; all of them were wearing bluish grey robes and with the front part of the hood veiling their eyes, with gnarled canes in each of their hands.  
  
One of the six grunted. "You are the one requesting aid from us." It was more a statement than a question.  
  
Thinking of that, Link didn't answer - they knew what his answer was, anyway. The one next to the person who spoke tapped his cane sharply against the floor in impatience.  
  
"Yes." Link quickly replied.  
  
"You had brought a Gerudo inside our caves."  
  
"Uh... yes?" Link was getting a bit worried now.  
  
"You knew earlier that the Gerudo and the Sheikah weren't on... best terms with each other."  
  
"Well, yes."  
  
"Yet you brought her in." The one on the left side nodded towards Reza.  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"And yet... you still request our aid."  
  
Reza was getting impatient now.  
  
"Look, yes, Link wants your magical help for his masks, yes, I knew, I told him, he knows, that Gerudo and Sheikah are like oil and water, yes, I'm in here, as plain as the blasted lighting you use and for the Love of the Goddesses, he needs your help!" She fumed, not used to the quiet, mind-picking question moments.  
  
All six turned their heads and stared at her. None of them blinked. Reza thought that she overstepped her boundaries, but she kept her expression defiant.  
  
Neither side said a thing.  
  
Neither side were relenting yet.  
  
Yet one side finally spoke.  
  
"It had been catalogued that you fought an Ice Ghost somewhere around the well."  
  
Link was weary, as was Reza, so they just both nodded. Taking a quick survey of the area, Malik had already left (though Link suspected he was eavesdropping), and his father had followed his son.  
  
It was six old men against two young ones.  
  
"There were once seven of us."  
  
Yet one side finally spoke. Yet one side was seizing the upper hand.  
  
"Uh..."  
  
"The lost seventh heralded the call of frost."  
  
Link felt like shrinking and running as fast as he could go. Reza knew they were losing.  
  
"The lost seventh died by eight scimitar cuts, three knife slashes and a final axe stroke."  
  
Their voices weren't by any means getting louder, but they were becoming firmer, stronger. Holding more power, more force.  
  
"The lost seventh died by a Gerudo ambush."  
  
Unless they could say something fast and strong, they would have to lose this one-sided verbal battle.  
  
"The lost seventh brought his hatred to his grave about Gerudo, and all those that fight along them."  
  
Link knew he had to speak up; otherwise they'll try to whip him with guilt and incredible pressure. "Yes, that man might have died in anger, and I suppose that would explain why he suddenly attacked before and not when I was around. But these masks, as I suppose you all would know, contain power that should not be exposed to anyone, everyone, and I wish that you would help my call to seal the powers inside, only when I need to reactivate them again."  
  
That did not even make them relent.  
  
"Why are you allowed to use the powers?"  
  
"Why are you special in that way?"  
  
"Why do you think you are special?"  
  
"What knowledge do we have that you're not lying?"  
  
"What knowledge do we have that you won't abuse it?"  
  
"What knowledge do we have that you won't succumb to it?"  
  
At that, they came to a silent agreement and bombarded him with their taxing questions again.  
  
'How do we know you won't falter against it?'  
  
'How do we know you won't be possessed by it?'  
  
'How do we know you should be granted access to it?'  
  
They weren't repeatedly throwing questions at him before he could answer. They were punching their thoughts all the way right down into his subconscious.  
  
Link's mind was struggling to stay awake from the pressure.  
  
'I won't fall against it, I've used it before' he weakly thought against them.  
  
'Do we really know that you're not tainted by their powers?'  
  
'Do we really know that you're not enticed by their powers?'  
  
'Do we really know that you're not ruled by their powers?'  
  
Their piercing stares through their hoods were adding to his unease.  
  
'I... I don't know.'  
  
'If you don't know, how do you know to control the powers?'  
  
'If you don't know, how do you know to control the powers safely?'  
  
'If you don't know, how do you know you'll keep the control?'  
  
'If you don't know, how do you know you're not under their control?'  
  
Their thoughts kept hitting him like a battering ram, each blow to chip away at his defences. They kept hitting, and finally they got through.  
  
From his automatic safety system, he was knocked unconscious.  
  
*  
  
'Do we really know that you're not tainted by their powers?'  
  
'Do we really know that you're not enticed by their powers?'  
  
'Do we really know that you're not ruled by their powers?'  
  
Link panted as that thing kept repeating itself in his mind. It went over and over and over again, cycling through the same words, each to the same importance, yet with greater effect each time.  
  
"Ah, shut it, you know it's very annoying listening to the same voices again and again."  
  
Link blinked. Opening his eyes, he came to see the usual black that he saw when he saw that odd lady. So that meant that the voice was...  
  
"Yes, it's me." The voice said. Rolling around in this odd space where he kept meeting her, he saw her again. It was the same - glowing figure, middle of nowhere, and no clue on how he got there.  
  
"Yes, aren't I dazzling?"  
  
"Dazzling my flat foot." Link muttered under his breath; never mind that she could read minds, so she can hear all speeches.  
  
Her eye twitched slightly. "Contrary to your popular belief, we are not in the middle of nowhere, just on the edge of somewhere and the brink of nowhere."  
  
Eh?  
  
"Don't worry about it, your tiny brain won't be able to visualise it, along with how you got here."  
  
Deciding to change the subject, he asked a question. "So what is this Second Seal you were talking about?"  
  
The lady looked a bit put off and pouted slightly through all that 'dazzling brilliance'. "Well, do you know who made the Triforce?"  
  
"Yeah," he replied easily (when you travel back and fourth in time, bearing one of the pieces and chasing a man with the other, you get to tend to know the legend quite well) "the three Goddesses." What was she trying to get at?  
  
"Very good, and be patient, you insufferable pipsqueak." She retorted to his wondering.  
  
Link broke into a smile at that. "If I'm small, that means that you're big. Hmm, you must have a waistline the size of these caverns."  
  
The lady drifted up close and bonked him on the head. "Never treating higher beings with respect," she grumbled, kicking his chest to send him reeling back, "oh well, I never told you who I was."  
  
"That's a good question," Link responded, getting the hang of drifting by floating over by backstroke, "aside from that I know you're even bigger than a hippo, who by the Goddesses are you?" The lady scowled, but did not feel inclined to kick him back again.  
  
"That is actually closer than what many believe I am. Which part of the Triforce do you bear?" She didn't have to wait for an answer, since he was already thinking about it. "Which of the three Goddesses' essence is in that part?" Link's eyes widened. "Who do you think I am?"  
  
"Din!" Link swore.  
  
Her steadily building smirk dropped. "No, I'm Farore, you dolt."  
  
His eyes widened even larger. "By Nayru!"  
  
She gave him a flat glare. "How thick is your head? I told you I'm Farore."  
  
He gave her a flat stare back. "I know that just that I didn't think it was wise to swear by your name at you." She raised an eyebrow at that, but nodded (albeit reluctantly) in agreement.  
  
"If you're a goddess, why don't you act all pristine and regal?"  
  
"Are you implying that I am not?"  
  
"No, I'm implying that you act like a boy half the time and sound annoying at the other half." She growled at him.  
  
"You may be of a weak by my standards race, which elevates me above you by quite a bit, so you would expect me to act like your monarchy." Link nodded to that. "Well, face it buddy, we also have feelings too, so when I feel like it, I can be as rude or reasonable as I choose to be."  
  
With that said, she lowered the glow around her, revealing herself to him. He would have stumbled back if there was ground on him.  
  
She appeared to be wearing light silver robes, which contrasted well against her purplish flowing hair that fell back to her knees. Just like as said in the tomes of legends before, her beauty was astounding, but the books never seemed to be able to capture her very own radiance. Link managed to think that she had the beauty of a goddess, but whacked himself mentally at that thought.  
  
"Ha! I knew I looked better than both Nayru and Din ever did!" Link managed to assemble coherent speech and spoke out.  
  
"I thought that as the all loving type, you didn't compete against each other." Farore nodded lightly at that, and a light frown appeared on her face.  
  
"Well, yeah, but it does tend to get boring just watching how people live everyday lives. Sure, there is the occasional entertainment since there is no such thing as privacy against us-" she sent Link an annoyed glance at his shocked face "-but there really is nothing more to do that watch strife, peace and everyday routine go on."  
  
"Uh, so how'd you fix that?"  
  
Conjuring a chair, she sat down and went into a storyteller's pose. "Granted, we came up with an idea on how we can amuse ourselves. It was really to visit our own made planes of existences and appear as daily characters, just with a twist. Din chose to become a dancer, as wild as a raging fire, Nayru chose to be a singer, as serene as a tranquil lake, and I chose to become a storyteller, as mesmerising as the infinite stars. We stayed for a while, came back and saw how many books were published on each of us and how many people believed that I, or the other two, were the best looking."  
  
Link could only stare. He was enraptured with the story, but part of his mind was thinking 'what by Din's Fire?'  
  
Farore blushed in slight embarrassment and continued. "You could say I cheated, since I usually went to where children were usually found, and that meant towns and cities, where there were more people to listen to me, as well as more people skilled in writing. But after all, if the Hero of Time thinks I'm beautiful, then that means I win!"  
  
"You know, I never saw Din or Nayru, you know."  
  
"Well, after you feasted your eyes on me, why would you want to see them? Sure, they're all fantastic and such; I have to admit, but not as well as me." She said in self appreciation.  
  
Link mumbled under his breath. "I doubt either has such a bloated ego."  
  
Farore sent him reeling again with another shove.  
  
"Back to work now... yes, the Second Seal of the Sacred Realm." She started, entering her storytelling pose again.  
  
"It can only be achieved by one that wields time, along with the companions of Fire and Ice. The Great Sages must aid in the fortification of this seal, and once that is complete, none with the mind of destruction might be able to re-enter the Sacred Realm again."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Link asked, totally confused now.  
  
"Since I don't have much time left, I'll tell you later. But I can tell you about the Wielder of Fire, however." Picking a bit of lint off her robes, she continued. "Remember your friend Reza? She managed to sprout into flames and beat old Maxim even when he was in his indestructible form. Guess who wields fire?"  
  
"Oh..."  
  
"Of course," Farore interjected before his thought could process that for too long and dwindle off subject, "she wields it, she does not create it. You were the one who supplied the required energy for her to change it." Seeing his confused face, she elaborated. "Imagine yourself as wood. She is the flint. Providing that there is still the wood being fed, the flint can start the fire and keep it going. If there is no more wood to give, the fire goes out. Alone, a flint does not do much - it could cut if you're lucky, but most of the time it will not. The wood has much more uses, however. As long as it is generated, you could use it to create a fire, set a camp, build a boat, enforce a building and even make weapons. It has many uses, but it can only be changed with the tools. It could be used in its raw form, of course, but not as well as with a tool nearby. The tool, hence, is useless without anything to act upon."  
  
Link pondered on that for a moment. Before he had too much time to dwell on it, she spoke again.  
  
"Well, I best get going now. Your friend Malik wishes for you to wake up now. I'll see you later, and oh! Don't forget to take a shower - you smell bad." With that said (and Link sticking his tongue out in a mature manner), she faded away and Link woke up.  
  
"Ah, Link! You're awake! It's nice to know you didn't fall so soon for their mental projectiles. Screaming Nightmares, eh?" Malik gave a smile to him and helped him up. A voice spoke up at the corner of the room.  
  
"As much as I disapprove of the thought, I have to agree with Blue boy. Screaming Nightmares indeed. They're nightmares alright, with their mind poking activities. As with the screaming, well, the silence and forceful quiet statements they make seems to be shouting at you." Turning around, it was Reza there - unarmed, surprisingly.  
  
"To make sure that I won't go around on a rampage to kill everybody," Malik and Reza snorted at that, "they made me leave my weapons in this room. Just in case someone sees me armed, they know that there is trouble around." Reza rolled her eyes, and Link could see that this was the room that he brought Reza towards.  
  
"Well, let's go. Weird as it is, the old bats were impressed on how long you stood up against their mental torment, so agreed to help you. First thing they're going to do is apologise."  
  
Reza coughed back a laugh. "Them? Apologise? Has the main hall collapsed and they want extra hands to fix it?"  
  
Malik looked a bit surprised. "No, actually; the tunnel that leads to my room fell down, and I guess they would like extra hands to fix it, though."  
  
Link sighed. "Never mind, let's go."  
  
*  
  
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, just grumbling to myself on how I can get beaten so easily on Warcraft Frozen Throne on Easy level. I shall be the best! Anyhow, hopefully the next chapter won't take as long. Thanks for waiting. 


	8. Child Hunt

A/N: Hey there. Sorry for keeping those that read this story for waiting for this chapter, I was just bathing in the light of victory. Warcraft, as you might guess. I'm a really cheap player(. Back to subject, the following chapters should come a bit faster. I thank all those that read, and I give my deepest gratitude to all those that reviewed. Chapter 8: Child Hunt  
  
Link stared up in amazement and sheer wonder. Reza, standing a few steps to his left was smirking slightly at the view granted. Malik presently was looking disconcerted at the situation.  
  
The sky was bright and uplifting as it usually was, the sense of a rainstorm's appearance far of in the distance, and the sun allowed those underneath to bask in the comforting glow of its light. The occasional harmless guay flew on overhead, the rare squawk emitting from its beak.  
  
But that was not what amazed Link. The sky did offer some comfort and inspiration in his more morbid moments of his earlier quests, but presently there was something more alerting than the vast sky.  
  
Upon one of the support beams for the soon-to-come archery shop, one of the carpenter brothers had left a beam of wood standing vertically, supported by the brick layering below. On top of that was yet another beam, slightly shorter and lay on top horizontally (Link would wonder how that was done later), and dangling on one of the edges was Malik, upside down.  
  
Link decided to jump to the most obvious conclusion he could imagine. Turning to Reza, he spoke. "You didn't have anything to do with Malik's... relocation, do you?"  
  
Reza shrugged, and gave her customary crooked smile. "Do you think you would believe me if I told you that a cucco brought him up there?"  
  
"Let me think... no." Link deadpanned.  
  
"Fine, then what about if he spooked the cuccos into attacking he and he sought refuge up there?" Link gave her another flat stare.  
  
Finally Reza sagged in defeat and replied. "What goes around comes around." Link raised an eyebrow at that, deciding that it might be best to listen to her first before he took Malik off his unwanted perch.  
  
"Yesterday after the meeting with the six old men Malik decided that it was funny to stick me onto a water course."  
  
Link blinked. "What is wrong with that?"  
  
"The course involved standing on top of a spinning log and stay out of the water. It did not help that Blue boy wanted to recreate tidal waves. He should be grateful I did not attach him to the windmill."  
  
Link sighed as he helped Malik get down. He really couldn't remember if there was a pool of water underground for Malik's water course, but then again he was cooped up with the six men while Malik went off giving Reza a tour of the tunnels.  
  
Those old men were odd, to say the least. Before, they acted all mysterious and imposing with their hoods shielding their eyes and their constant barrage of speech. When he went to see them, they actually took their hoods down, spoke like normal people and smiled and laughed like normal people.  
  
The first thing they did was apologise. The second thing was that they were impressed on how he handled their onslaught, standing up to them and giving way when he felt that they might have been right. The third thing they did was teach him how to seal the masks powers, saying something about that their skills did not fade yet, but their powers were waning.  
  
Link shuddered at the memory of the power sealing. The first thing they did was build up his mental resistance, by taunting him and attempting (with unwanted good results) to degrade him to dirt through mental speech. Second thing they tried to do was teach him not to fall to illusions and magically enhanced speeches or views. That didn't go well, especially when they tested him my painting a picture of Reza with the magical image of Malik and vice versa along with distorting the proportion. Link's nose got flicked enough after the test when he accidentally called Reza Malik and foolishly said that her head didn't look as bloated as he saw it previously.  
  
Finally, through arduous training and the constant sharp reprimand when he made a mistake, he mastered how to seal a power into an object and send out commands to reopen or re-enforce the seal. From that point Link was dubious about their speech of their powers waning - they could demonstrate to him enough times, and they packed a wallop when they rapped his knuckles with their canes.  
  
Link could now finally rest without the knowledge of that he might accidentally unleash the Fierce Deity mask upon another unwary person, sending forth destruction within the area after his death. Now at least, no one will be able to reactivate the masks unless they had incredibly high storages of magic and the skill the break it down, or he pulled down his lock spell by himself. Link smiled wryly at that thought - how many people do have big storages of magic, anyway? He guessed that they would have to live up to six hundred (roughly four times the length of an average Hylian) to build up enough mana training to be able to cast spells that were able to smash security locks into smithereens. Or, they would have to have six hundred years worth of experience to find out how to slither in and open it that way. Just like a thief.  
  
Speaking of thieves, Link wondered why Reza hadn't robbed anyone clean yet. He was certain that she was a trained Gerudo thief as well as soldier, but why hadn't anyone been picked flat out?  
  
Link was spared of asking when Malik asked for him.  
  
"That was mean, I could have been afraid of heights - lucky for me, I am not - and then plummeted impending certain death. That was really cruel, and don't you Gerudo believe in second chances and not in revenge? I mean, it is one thing to fight out in battle, but do you all - or is it just a 'you' type characteristic - that always fight back outside a fight? I guess I should've expected that, as you are a Gerudo thief. Hey, since you are a thief, how come I still have my wallet?"  
  
Reza growled. "It's because you don't have anything special in it."  
  
"Hey! I have rupees! Dozens and dozens of them! In fact, I believe I have one... two... three... twenty... twenty two... Ok, I only have twenty two, but how come no one around is screaming of their house being robbed?"  
  
Reza slowly counted to ten, and then replied, somewhat harshly. "I am a thief. A thief. I am not a burglar. I do not rob houses. I rob people."  
  
Malik blinked, trying to make sense of the short statements she said. Isn't a thief the same as a burglar?  
  
"Then how come you didn't steal anything?"  
  
"Who says I didn't?"  
  
"Who says you did?"  
  
"No one, because thieves don't let them know they're being robbed."  
  
Malik paused. "So how do you rob people? I've never seen you approach a person closely."  
  
Link, who was listening in the background, chuckled as his eyes opened in realisation. "Heh, a Gerudo warrior thief. It's almost how ironic that is."  
  
Malik flitted over to Link in a heartbeat. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Reza has never been close to anyone so far, correct?" Waiting for Malik's affirmative, he continued. "The only times she ever been within grasping range is when she was fighting, right? Who is to say that she doesn't steal while she's fighting? I have no clue to how she does that, since she has to hold her swords, but it might be possible for her, I believe."  
  
A cry at the gates of the village broke the talk as a lady (not Hylian, Link noticed as he rushed closer) was desperately begging for help.  
  
She definitely looked bedraggled, with her black hair messed up and curly with bits of leaves and twigs stuck on. Her clothes were pretty much shredded, and blood could be seen blossoming from the cuts beneath, but what caught Link's attention to her were two things: she was clutching a baby protectively as she pled, and she wasn't speaking any language he was familiar of.  
  
The clock guard flailed his arms helplessly as he wondered what to do. Figuring as much as possible, he, along with the boss carpenter, tenderly brought her inside the village, and tried to supply as much food, water and clothes as possible to her and her child while letting her reside with the carpenters.  
  
Still, even after a bath, a change of clothes and a good meal, she was still begging at them, except for that it wasn't as urgent. Cradling the baby within her arms, she called the same things she said at the gates, with no one knowing what to do.  
  
The best the guard could think of was to call one of the Sheikah magicians and see if they could communicate mentally.  
  
As the minutes ticked by, the lady grew more and more insistent with her pleas as night drew near. Link, who sat next to her most of the time, accompanied with Malik and Reza, wondered what to do. They knew she was asking for something, but what it was, they had no idea.  
  
Malik tried to break the tense air by playing with the little baby. The lady, however, was very protective to the child she carried around, and didn't allow Malik to touch him (Link couldn't be sure - the cloth wrapping surrounding the child made it hard to tell the gender).  
  
Malik pouted for a moment, and then smiled cheerily. He flipped out one of his emotion masks - happiness, from the looks of it - and started making funny gestures in front of them, be it acting like a monkey, pretending to be a dog, role-playing as a cucco and so on. Reza assumed he was trying to make the child laugh.  
  
His idea was working, with him flipping masks around, showing different emotions, and acting like animals that showed that type of emotion. It too seemed to slightly rub off on the lady, with the child in her arms laughing and extending his arms out in a gesture of appreciation.  
  
Malik's funny antics lasted for a while, until the baby fell asleep. After that, he pulled out a mask of depression, and just sat there.  
  
Like Link, Reza had no idea what Malik was doing, sitting there and acting out of character. The lady had become more relaxed with the handling of her child, and gently taking the baby, she rocked it and begun to sing a simple melody to him.  
  
"The barren winds may blow the sand,  
  
The razing sun may scorch the ground.  
  
But know you're safe within my hands,  
  
I shall keep you safe and sound."  
  
Link blinked at that. Reza knew how to sing?  
  
"The sun rises and soon it dies,  
  
Our Sisters are marching off to war.  
  
Heed little to the battle cries,  
  
I'll make sure blood will never reach our door."  
  
Link had to say, that was a really different set of lyrics.  
  
"Vast is the Desert and so with the sky,  
  
Infinite colours for all to see.  
  
May the spirits of our Sisters let you fly,  
  
May the will of the Gerudo set you free."  
  
If the song was any longer, it wouldn't have been heard as suddenly Malik burst out crying. Taking off his blue tinted mask for a moment, he wiped the tears from his eyes.  
  
"That's so... touching!" He wailed, taking the handkerchief offered by Link and blowing his nose into it. Reza scowled at him.  
  
"It's a Gerudo lullaby." She said sternly, handing the child back to his appropriate guardian.  
  
"It sounds a bit harsh, if you ask me." Link lightly stated, waving his hand to allow Malik to keep the damp handkerchief. Reza flicked his nose at that.  
  
"We Gerudo are a warrior race; of course it's a bit harsh." She turned around to see Malik babbling something to the lady, who seemed not to understand a word of it.  
  
"What are you doing?" Link asked, pulling Malik back slightly to give the lady more space.  
  
Malik blew one final time into the soaking handkerchief, and then replied. "When I wore my mask just now, I was attempting to read her mind. She has two children." Reza frowned slightly at that. What by Nayru was so touching about having two children? "She lost her oldest child somewhere in the forests."  
  
Link felt a pang of sympathy in him. He could emphasize with the lady - being an orphan, never knowing whom his parents were, he could imagine what the child would feel, and he could guess what the lady would feel.  
  
"Where did she lose her child?" Link asked, a determined look appearing on his visage.  
  
"From what I can gather, it was in a forest down south - far south." Malik responded, checking on his newly acquired piece of information.  
  
Link's eyes narrowed slightly. "The Lost Woods, eh? That doesn't sound too good. Well, let's get going; we've spent enough time in Kakariko village as it is." Standing up, he headed towards the door, with Reza steadying herself up with Malik scrambling to get up.  
  
"Where are we going?" Reza questioned, checking if there was anything left behind.  
  
"We're heading down south - far south." That was the only response she got from Link for a while.  
  
*  
  
The rain poured in torrents, lashing harshly against a certain troupe of three people as the wind roared around them. Thunder echoed in the distance as a bolt of lightning struck the ground, cracking a tree in at the horizon.  
  
Night had arrived, and through the darkness and the constant barrage of rain the three kept pressing on.  
  
Link smiled grimly, as he muttered to himself. "The thousand years of raindrops summoned by my song are my tears. The thunder that strikes the earth is my anger." Reza peeked under her raincoat's hood and through the veil of water at him.  
  
Sensing that someone was looking at him, Link turned around to the group to speak. "I think we should find shelter for a moment - I'm going to try something."  
  
Sidling next to a wall of rock next to the roaring Zora River, Malik and Reza huddled in hopes of protection against the lashing rain. Link pulled out the Ocarina of Time, smiling fondly at the memories it brought of his travels.  
  
Bringing it to his lips, he started to play the Song of Storms. While he was playing he pondered why the names were so common among Termina and Hyrule. Flat and Sharp here taught him the Sun Song and the Flat in Termina taught him the Song of Storms. Oddly enough, the music box man in the windmill also taught him the Song of Storms, because he played it in the past to drain the well, so the man learnt it and taught him it in the future. Quite the paradox, Link thought.  
  
Playing the song had a big gamble to it, since he tried this about two times before. The first time, the rain had receded, the second, it became a whole lot fiercer. Link frowned at that memory.  
  
Fortunately, the rain finally dropped down to a light drizzle, and once the curtain of clouds parted slightly, Malik and Reza walked over.  
  
"I don't think I'll ask how you did that," Reza spoke, taking off her drenched raincoat and trying to wring out as much water as possible, "but why didn't you do it sooner?" Her answer was soon answered when another torrent of rain - heavier this time - poured down with a vengeance.  
  
"It never goes right." Link grumbled, wiping his soaked fringe away from his eyes as he surveyed their sodden condition. Reza scowled as she folded her raincoat away, giving Link another flick to his nose as she bypassed him.  
  
"Hey, if your map is correct, the Kokiri Forests should only be about an hours walk away, right?" Malik shouted through the rain, pointing to a bunch of tatters that was supposed to be a map. Link nodded, taking off his cap to squeeze water out of it, then remembering it was raining and reluctantly put it back on.  
  
As they trudged through the soggy grass, with the occasional mud patch on the plains, the looming trees of the Woods steadily rose from the horizon.  
  
*  
  
Link was running. Link was running fast. Reza and Malik were running just behind him, but they were running nonetheless.  
  
Earlier on, once the rain had settled slightly, Malik decided to see if he could still throw his throwing knives. Deciding that the pink, enormous tree would have made a good target, he fired at it.  
  
Fool.  
  
Link never bothered to listen when Navi told him of its name - usually, he was running too fast or keeping his healthy distance away from them. Now, without Navi, he would never know of their names, and as long as he lived, he wouldn't want too. Their armour is so dense that nothing can pierce it, only on the bottom parts, where rotor blades are protecting it.  
  
Fortunately, the dense armour makes the things very slow, and the trio were fortunate enough to run away. Panting slightly, they paused at the entrance of the Forest, where Reza bopped Malik on the head.  
  
"Blue boy, I am so going to kill you if you try that stunt again."  
  
"It's not my fault! It looked like a tree!"  
  
Reza gave him a flat stare. "It looked like a tree that is four men wide and as pink as your underpants."  
  
Link could only pause at that, whereas Malik took a horrified expression.  
  
"Let me just say that hooking you on the beam wasn't my only form of revenge." Malik looked indignant for a moment, and with his nose stuck in the air, trudged towards the tunnel that leads inside.  
  
It was a shame that he had to hit a tree first.  
  
With a small squeak as he plopped onto the ground, Link sighed as he dragged Malik along the bridge.  
  
The walk through Kokiri Forest was interesting to two, and almost melancholy to one. 'Yes,' Link thought wistfully, 'this was once my home. This was once my family.' Link took a good look at every single Kokiri he passed, noticing that he was now a head higher than them all.  
  
None of them recognised him, he realised. They all expected the Link they knew to be only their size, and not the growing boy that he was, and still owning a fairy. Link's thought plummeted even lower at that.  
  
Malik waved cheerily at the staring Kokiri, each stopping their usual routine to see these new strangers. The Twins seemed to be betting who would become a Stalfos first, and the Know-it-all brothers were taking shots at which race these newcomers were from.  
  
The first stop Link wanted to go to first was the Great Deku Tree. Actually, he wanted to go to the Small Deku Tree. Just because Zelda sent him back in time didn't mean that she actually finished undoing what Ganondorf had wrought upon the world. Luckily, the Great Deku Tree sapling had grown seven years ahead of time and was blooming to be just higher than Link.  
  
In the way was Mido.  
  
Standing imperiously in the way of the group, he craned his head up to see who dared to enter and defile the lands of the heart of the Forest.  
  
"Who are you three and what business do you have here?" He superiorly commanded. If Reza knew that Link once lived among the Kokiri, she would have allowed him to talk. Unfortunately, she did not.  
  
"We're here to find a little kid that was lost -"  
  
"No Kokiri will ever get lost in these forests." Mido interrupted.  
  
"The kid we're searching for isn't a Ko-"  
  
"Then that kid won't be alive no more."  
  
Reza's face darkened. "Listen, you little wimp, just let us-" again, she was interrupted, but this time by Link instead.  
  
"We are heading for the Great Deku Tree to see if he has any information about this missing child." Link smoothly interjected, pointing towards the meadow.  
  
Mido was having a slight dilemma. To bring these unknown travellers (though the blonde guy looked oddly familiar) towards the Great Deku Tree would be extremely risky, especially in his newborn state. However, not many people know of the Tree's existence, and one of the few laws of the Kokiri is to aid any child within the Forests.  
  
Threatening their lead figure, or break one of the strongest laws, you can see it wasn't an easy decision.  
  
"Alright," Mido grudgingly shuffled aside, glaring at them, "You can ask. But don't you dare defile the Great Deku Tree, and you will get lost in the Lost Woods!" Link waved it off with a smile and they approached.  
  
Reza wondered why so many Deku babas littered the place. Link explained about that three years ago, the Tree was very, very ill and had died. Now, it had grown again, but it was too small and too weak to abolish all of the mutated plants.  
  
Link had to smile at the image of the Great Deku Tree. It was very hard to believe that the plump looking stump with three branches before him manages to grow into the awe-inspiring regal tree that he once knew.  
  
"Hello there." The Tree called out greeting each of them warmly. As a form of Kokiri respect, drilled into him (somewhat harshly) by Mido and calmly by Saria, he spread out his hands and opened his arms in a gesture of welcome, then patted the opposite shoulders lightly before bowing.  
  
Malik smiled at that. "Hey cool, is that a greeting! How'd you do it, which race is it from? It looks pretty neat, but what is it supposed to do?"  
  
The Great Deku Tree smiled at him. "Relax, young one. That indeed is a greeting, created by the Kokiri you have passed long before to honour me, though I find it quite unnecessary. They believe that the spreading of your fingers gestures of no weaponry, the wide arms to show that you come in peace, the patting of the shoulders to signify calmness of my presence - if one had donned armour, a clink would have been heard - and the bow to show the hierarchy. I find it endearing, quite practical in moments of great strife, but otherwise pointless."  
  
Reza thought about that. Maybe she could introduce that towards the Gerudo, it sounded quite useful to her. "What do you mean by calling him 'young one'? Link - boy in green over there - told us that you are only three years old."  
  
A smile cracked upon the trees face. "Ah yes, Link, it is good to see you. As for your question, while my body may be only of three years, my memories and wisdom span for thousands of years. I am the protector of the Lost Woods, after all."  
  
Link decided that it was time to speak. "It's nice too see you again, Great Deku Tree. We are here searching for a child; an anonymous lady had lost her child here somewhere. Can you help us find him, or her?"  
  
The Tree paused in thought. "Yes, I can aid in your search for this child, Link. He is in the Lost Woods, but I fear that without a fairy, you will not be able to find him. The magic of the Forest is complicated in its weaving, and those that are not of its threads are ejected. I believe that the Skull kids may aid you, however."  
  
Link was a bit dubious at that - the Skull kids kept shooting darts at him when he was bigger. Hopefully, he along with Reza and Malik would still be in the required size limit to talk to them safely.  
  
The most the Tree could do in his unfinished state was to weaken the magic effects against the trio. That should help them keep their sense of direction somewhat, but hopefully the fairy magic that Navi had cast upon Link still would last right now.  
  
The procession towards the Lost Woods was a intimidating one. After all, with over a dozen people prophesizing your death the moment you enter, staring with the occasional respect for their courage and pity at their folly.  
  
Once they got into the Woods and out of the Kokiri village, Reza let out a stifled breath. "By Din, you would have thought that we were going to die the moment we stepped in." Malik looked around uncertainly, his emotion senses going off like crazy in here. That meant two, very bad things. The first bad thing is that the magic of the Forest was able to suppress and send his own magic haywire, or that there are many beings inside that feel all those emotions. In the Forest, those beings could only be wild creatures, morphed beasts or the Skull kids.  
  
"Uh, guys, we might have a problem here." He finally spoke, pointing to the four passageways they had to choose from. One will bring them back to the Forest; another will bring them to their destination, and the other two spelt their death.  
  
"Relax guys," Link said, rifling for his ocarina, "I'll just play a tune to warp us to the Forest Temple, try to see if we can contact Saria there then get her help to navigate this place, without needing the risk of being shot at by the Skull kids." Motioning for them to put their hands on his shoulders, he started playing the minuet of Forest.  
  
He had never teleported anyone more than himself and Navi (and Tatl in Termina), but should have worked, since those fairies never touched him to be teleported. In the back of his mind, he wondered what would happen if he played the Sonata of Awakening in the Lost Woods, but decided that it wasn't the time to experiment yet.  
  
*  
  
The Great Deku Tree, being rooted to the spot, was presently playing chess against three fairies. It was amusing how his people, the fairies included, would squabble for the best decisions to reach the goal they all wanted.  
  
He suddenly felt discomfort as a foreign form of magic entered the Woods, smashing the enchantments in its way as it went. He knew it was not Link - for even though Link had the required power to do as such, it hadn't been harnessed, and his magic was mostly nature ridden. This different magic, was partly natural, had an abnormal feel of malevolence to it, if it even felt like anything at all.  
  
The Tree wasn't thinking when the three fairies cheered happily at the checkmate they caused, knowing that Link would be troubled very soon.  
  
*  
  
Link was in a lot of trouble already. The mad deku scrubs, sensing his party's intrusion, started firing like mad in their general direction. Malik the acrobat had no problems dodging, just problems landing. Reza could hold herself against the onslaught, hopping and hacking when need be. Link, not one of the jumping types, could only deflect with his shield and swipe away with his sword.  
  
The sky was painted red already, so it was difficult to spot the red coloured scrubs. However, it was easier to see the black dots that seemed to slowly swarm behind the deku scrubs.  
  
The scrubs, although hell bent to firing at the intruders, could sense the presence behind them, and started scattering. Link and Reza, despite seeing it once (twice for Link) before, were still shocked at what they were seeing. Malik, never seeing these foreign creatures, could only respond as he knew.  
  
"What by the Goddesses are they!?" He shouted, staring in fear and shock at what was coming.  
  
They were black. All of them were black. The all had the same shapes of a mad deku scrub, but all of them were black. Link frowned deeply. Two thirds of the procession was the standard machine gun types, and another third was the lobbing types, hurtling nuts of explosive doom at you.  
  
What surprised him the most was the pitch black figure standing right behind the small army. Clad in a simple tunic and holding a rapier, what was there was a Saria copy, except for black all over.  
  
"By Farore," he swore under his breath, readying his weapons just like Malik and Reza, "more Dark copies." Reza and Malik were steadily inching back, until they were right at the base of the Forest Temple. Link was still standing on top of the Triforce symbol, but had to give way as the black scrubs scrambled in.  
  
The black mad deku scrubs suddenly surged forward, creating a three layer thick semi-circle around the three, with their escape sealed off.  
  
Reza didn't like the looks of it. The scrubs had created a form of an arena, and this... Dark Saria had daintily hopped in, pointing her rapier at them. If it wasn't for the usual blank faces on the Dark copies, Reza would have sworn that she was sneering at them.  
  
It wasn't the Dark Saria Link was worried about; the Dark copies (Link had no idea what to call them) imitated the one they copied almost perfectly, and he knew that Saria wasn't much of a close quarter combatant. It was the wall of Deku scrubs around him. The first two layers were ready to fire madly, with the last one prepared to lob in their explosive ammunition. While he may be occupied dodging one set of deku nuts, he will almost certainly be hit by the following.  
  
"Hey, guys! Try to get as close to her as possible, and do try to avoid the shots!" Link called out. The Dark Saria looked at him, and swished her rapier.  
  
At once, the surge of black coloured deku nut appeared, most colliding against each other with a resounding impact. The Dark Saria weaved in between each shot, just calmly watching as Link, Reza and Malik hopped around to avoid them.  
  
Malik hopped into the air, managing to flip over four shots at him, and threw a knife to the Dark Saria. To his surprise and Link's dismay, she swung her sword, not touching the knife, but sending a blade of black energy at it, melting it.  
  
Link scowled. He was sure a light arrow would be able to hurt this type of opponent easily, but with the deku nuts being lobbed and fired, he would not have enough time to prepare for it.  
  
Reza knew of the fruitlessness of trying to get close to Dark Saria. She would hop out of the arena; fire a black energy blade and hope back in, weaving in between the shots. So, Reza tried to kill as many of the Deku scrubs as possible, to lessen the number of shots being fired.  
  
It was too difficult, because she had to hop back before being hit in point blank range, then jump a bit more to avoid the incoming shots. All she, Link and Malik were doing was wasting their energy.  
  
"Uh, guys," Malik started, rolling underneath a wave of fire, "you know when you fought the ice ghost guy, Reza built up a lot of fire around her, do you think you can do it again?" Link had no time to response as he had to block three lobbed deku nuts with his shield, jarring his arm badly.  
  
"I guess we could, but I don't know how!" Reza said through gritted teeth, clenching her stomach where one of the deku scrubs got a good shot in. She was immediately bombarded with many more until Link scooped her away.  
  
"Damn these blank faces, it's far too difficult to figure out who they're choosing!" Link scowled, hopping over a shot meant for Malik.  
  
That gave Malik a form of inspiration. "Do these things feel anything?" He asked, hitting the ground to avoid the shots.  
  
"Not that I can think have, no."  
  
Malik suddenly pulled out another mask - happiness, Link believed, and donning it, continued fighting.  
  
"What is that supposed to do?" Reza said, hopping painfully above another launch.  
  
Her question was soon answered. Malik concentrated for a moment, and let loose a burst of emotion. To Link and Reza, it was soothing and elating, but to the Deku scrubs near him, it was absolute torture.  
  
Malik let loose another wave, and the six deku scrubs near him cracked into two, black tendrils escaping silently.  
  
Malik had taken down another dozen when Dark Saria decided to intervene. She (or It, in this case, since Link doubted these Dark copies ever had a gender aside from those they duplicated) sent an energy blade at Malik, which rammed into his mask, shattering it and getting him to fly back at the unexpected attack.  
  
There was a large, gaping hole in the deku scrub arena, and it would have been obvious to have taken advantage of it and run with your friends. Link didn't think so.  
  
He charged at Dark Saria, hopping from foot to foot to avoid its energy blades. Unfortunately, one blade got a good cut at his chest, and he flew back too.  
  
Reza was on the boiling point already. Her word at the Gerudo Fortress was to help and protect Link, and it seemed that some of the times it worked the other way round. Now, he had a big gash on his chest, most likely had lung damage and wouldn't be moving any time soon. Then it clicked.  
  
Link felt the familiar presence of someone requesting power again. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to use his by himself for a while, not until he had been healed, he granted it.  
  
Reza burst into flames again. Razing through the wall of deku scrubs, impervious to the shots being thrown at her and roasting the ones in her way. She was too fast for Dark Saria too, dodging the black energy blades and gaining ground very fast.  
  
Link had troubles breathing now. With the energy flowing through him, it was hard to breathe as blood was leaking fast. Finally, he had to give way and shut off the energy.  
  
Reza had just snapped the rapier already and had a fiery arm around Dark Saria's neck, her powers gave way. But that was fine.  
  
"Say goodbye, miss." Reza scowled as she plunged her scimitar deep through her chest.  
  
The last thing Link saw before he blanked out was the remaining Deku scrubs fading away.  
  
A/N: Sorry for the long time it took, and forgives me if this chapter was too long and suffering from a bad case of verbiage. I was trying to help develop character. I find it impossible. Oh well, thanks for reading. 


	9. Search Complete

A/N: Sorry for the extremely long time it took, just wallowing in my mind about 'how did I lose'? Next time, never fully trust your allies in Warcraft - it spells your own death when they back out on you. Curse them - curse them all. Chapter 9: Search Ends  
  
In a warp of space and time, colours distorted and the question of where having no meaning, to figures lay within its grasp.  
  
One figure was presently circling another, drifting around and examining the other presence.  
  
"Hmm... this is not good." She muttered, a deep frown on her face, as she revolved around the subject of speech.  
  
Link groaned, as he rolled over. He snapped to full consciousness when he realised that there was nothing underneath him. He looked around to see there was nothing there as well, aside from that purple haired lady.  
  
"Farore?" He wheezed, coughing at the cut he had obtained during his fight. He had no time to see her previous deep frown, as she had instantly replaced it with something more jovial. However, he could sense that it wasn't entirely a true smile.  
  
"What's wrong?" He asked innocently, to which Farore gave an unhappy sigh at.  
  
"Let us just say that the cut you had received wasn't just superficial." Her cryptic answer came forth, confusing Link at that.  
  
Before he could ask her deeper about that, she waved it off. "Relax; it's not something to worry about now. For the moment, I highly suggest you wake up, ease the tortured nerves of your friends and get moving. Thank the Goddesses - wait, I'm a goddess - thank me that they were smart enough not to move in the Lost Woods."  
  
Before Link could retort, she booted him out of this plane, and into the waking world.  
  
*  
  
Reza sat glumly as guard watch. Malik had dragged Link's overexerted form under the big tree and temple entrance for shade, and she was sitting on the Triforce symbol, a couple of steps away in case another wave of creatures attacked. She was sure she would be able to take down two or three, but not twenty or thirty.  
  
It was a relief when she heard Link moan, and turning around briefly, see him roll over. It was an even greater relief for her when Malik poked him; he curled up and muttered "ten minutes, Saria."  
  
"Link! You're alive; by the Goddesses you're alive!" Malik cheerfully rejoiced, picking Link up and pulling him into a bear crushing hug, knocking the remaining air out of him and waking him up promptly.  
  
"Of course he's alive, blue boy, why else would you have brought him under there?" Reza said, heading over to Link and patting him on the head. "You did a good entrance, but a bad exit."  
  
Link, wheezing, spent some time wondering if she was talking about his ocarina song and his fainting spell, when his danger instincts gained from living with the Kokiri kicked in.  
  
"Where are we?" He said sharply, surveying the scenery around him and trying to match it to his memories.  
  
"We're at the same place we fought those black things." Malik replied. "Why did you bring us here, anyway? What were those black things?" Link assumed Reza didn't brief him on the Dark copies.  
  
"Well, from what I know, if this place was like three years ago, it should have one of the greater chunks of magic from the forest, so I thought speaking with the forest spirits here would have been easier. Those 'black things' are copies I believe, made out of shadow." He quickly explained, snapping out his ocarina again.  
  
A sharp pain to his chest prevented him from playing a note. Looking down, he saw that his wound had been crudely dressed, where a nasty red gash had stained the bandages.  
  
"That's where you stayed in the enemy fire," Reza said plainly, "and I believe that it hurts."  
  
"Yes, it does." Link gritted, inhaling a bit before playing his melody again.  
  
Saria's Song is a jovial song, as Malik and Reza soon experienced. It did remind them of the trees surrounding them, except for that it portrayed them in a brighter, cheerful version than the xenophobic, gloomy views they had the moment they stepped in. It was rather sweet, but Malik was no girl to say that and Reza was too war hungry to think of such, so the best they could do to describe the music was as cute.  
  
On his travels to find Navi (another wave of emotions hit him at that) he had found that it was sometimes very easy to talk to Saria, and at times very hard, both reasons relating to that she was a Sage. Since she was a Sage, it was much easier for her to get into contact with nature, making her magic much more powerful. However, her duties kept occupying her time, so most of the time she was too busy to reply to him.  
  
Luckily, she was free at this moment, so did talk with him.  
  
"Hi Link! You haven't spoken to me for ages!"  
  
'Hello Saria. It's only been a few weeks, you know.' One thing this magical way of talking taught Link was how to split his attention in between talking and keeping on playing the ocarina.  
  
"Well, it's been too long. How're you doing?"  
  
'I'm fine, though I could be better. Saria, do you know if there is a child in the Lost Woods? I kind of promised a lady that I would help find her child.'  
  
"What do you mean by 'kind of'?" Saria asked, though Link could tell she already started pooling some of her attention into scanning the Lost Woods.  
  
'Well, I actually just promised myself, and since she doesn't speak Hylian she wouldn't have heard the promise I made to her, but I will keep them up.' Link felt another wave of emotion as he wondered who his parents were.  
  
"I think I found him, it was easier this time since there are three fairies in his presence." Link had no time to contemplate why there were fairies with him, and once Saria set the mental beacon in him, giving his hasty thanks closed the line.  
  
"Alright guys, let's get moving. I know where the child is." Link announced after his time consuming chat. A fault in all his songs was that it seemed to make time stretch, so what felt like a moment might have been a minute.  
  
"Thank the Goddesses; let's get away from this forsaken place." Reza muttered under her breath, packing up her weaponry and shouldering some of Link's items.  
  
She stumbled at the weight of it, with it pulling her down with its great load. All she could think of was 'Link carries this around all the time?' Her respect for the presently bandaged boy went up a few notches.  
  
Link was focussing on the paths, making sure that Malik and Reza were behind him and following that newly set beacon that he didn't listen to Malik's ramblings on how the grounds weren't forsaken and was actually guarded by the tree they saw before. He could imagine that it was very boring, as Reza picked up her pace a bit to get to his level.  
  
Malik, now with no one listening to him, settled glumly to watching the passageways. He took note of its sheer size and numbers, as well as how the hollowed out trees seemed to all look the same. He smiled at that: Sheikah magic is great, but nature's magic is even greater.  
  
That was when the sounds of a battle reached their ears. In a larger area (Link noted that it was the Forest Meadow) with stretches of grass were three fairies, protecting a four year old that was cowering in the corner. One might have imagined that a fairy, let alone three, wouldn't have been much of a match in a fight, judging by their small, weak bodies as well as their small supply of magic. Their knowledge was vast, but without any strength to carry it out it would have been pointless.  
  
Those who imagined such were correct - they would have been no match against anything, except something their size. That was what they fighting: two other fairies, except for these ones seemed to emit not the usual blue, pink or white (yellow in combat mode) light, but a darker shade.  
  
As they approached, Link groaned. 'Not more of them', he miserably thought. Fighting against the three fairies, shooting the occasional black spark and getting the rare counter-attacking spark were two Dark Fairies. They were midget-sized compared to the other usual fairies, but they seemed to be holding more power as the two were holding out quite well against the three.  
  
From their distance, it wouldn't have been possible to see what the fairies were doing accurately, but Link, Malik and Reza could not that while two of the bright types seemed to like circle around and shoot inside, one of them liked to weave in between the darker ones, bouncing (Link assumed he or she was shoulder ramming the opponent - something he really didn't expect a fairy to try) and releasing his or her spark of energy at point blank. That tactic seemed to be dealing the most damage.  
  
As Link's group came closer, they saw up close why the four year old was frightened of the two fairies. One, annoyed by the daring shoulder- ramming fairy, let loose a dark aura that covered about a metre in diameter, displacing the air harshly and sending the nearby fairies (friend and foe) tumbling, magical shields erected in time. While the three opponent fairies were stunned, it flew up close and shot a strong spark of dark energy, sending the poor victim flying uncontrollably for a few metres.  
  
Malik decided to intervene now, guessing that the now two remaining bright fairies needed help. Slipping on a mask - calmness, since his happy mask had been shattered - he sent loose a wave of that emotion.  
  
It didn't seem to shatter the two dark fairies as expected, but it looked like they were hit in the guts painfully. That gave the other fairy a chance to get up close and she seemed to have snap kicked the first one, head-butted the second then shoulder rammed it into the first, wings beating madly. When Malik gave off another wave of serenity, calming the child and relaxing the three fairies, did the two copies shatter.  
  
The... brutal fighting fairy didn't seem to register their presence yet. "Blasted little black midgets, as painful as the day I stayed too long outside the Forest... Never saw one of them before, ferocious little buggers." She (Reza came close enough to see a general female figure) muttered to herself, floating down to the boy.  
  
"You alright there, pal? Don't mind those two black floating things - they weren't exactly as real as they looked. I have no clue to why they're here, or why you're here, but thank Farore that we came in time." The boy timidly nodded, frightened of the glowing mass standing - floating - in front of his face.  
  
He spoke something, but neither the fairy nor Link could understand what he said. "What did you say? I'm sorry, I think my hearing is fading slightly - if you've seen the fights I've seen and heard, you'll understand why - but I don't think I heard you properly." The kid didn't know what to say at that, so said his previous statement again, but it was clear he wasn't speaking a language they were familiar of.  
  
Malik sidled closer to Link and whispered: "Isn't that the boy we're searching for?" Link almost jumped in surprise; through watching the fairy fight he had forgotten about the boy. Nodding to Malik, he waved Reza over, and they approached him.  
  
The boy seemed tense at their sudden close proximity, but Link opened his arm in a non-threatening gesture. Malik popped on a different mask to try and communicate with the boy. The fairy floated closer to them, but her companion put an arm on her shoulder to prevent her from getting any closer.  
  
"Relax, these people probably don't mean any harm, I can see it in their eyes." She said to her associate. Turning around, she greeted the three. "Well, I have to thank you for helping us in fighting those things, I don't know how you did it, but it sure calmed me down. My two friends over there were the ones who were fighting those things; I just tagged along when I saw it."  
  
Somehow her way of speaking was strangely familiar. "If you don't mind us asking, who are you?" Link asked tentatively, with his friends seeing the juxtaposition of the very loud fairy and the quiet one.  
  
She stared a Link for a moment, then shrugged off whatever she was thinking of. "I'm the wandering fairy, traveller extraordinaire, the great and almighty me!" Reza raised an eyebrow at that. She was starting to like this fairy. "You've probably read my books; they're surprisingly popular among the fey folk children and adults alike."  
  
Malik blinked. "Uh, I don't think I ever heard of a fairy published book, I'm not a fairy and probably don't understand fairy language."  
  
She examined his height compared to Reza, a foot shorter than her. "I don't know, you seem to be the right size for one of us fairies. Your guardians probably didn't teach you how to read languages well enough." Malik looked indignant at the size insult and Reza grinned. She was starting to like this fairy a lot.  
  
"So, what's your name?" Reza casually added, wondering why Link looked so tense at that.  
  
"Ah, I have been named many things. I have been called, time crosser," Link tensed at that, "country walker, ground swimmer, warp flyer, sky breather and one of the best loyal fairies a kid could ever have."  
  
Link was looking really nervous and hopeful as he asked the next question, examining the fairy as well as possible through the light she gave. "What happened to your partner?"  
  
The fairy looked slightly unhappy. "I had to leave him, for fairy reasons. I wish I didn't, though. I spent the last two years searching for him, bearing no fruit."  
  
Malik seemed to be catching on to the slight drama before him. "Was your partner named Link?"  
  
The fairy looked surprised. "Why... yes. Do you know where he is?"  
  
Reza smiled at that. "Hey Link, that explains why you always wear those green forest clothes."  
  
The fairy could only stare at him. Link raised his hand meekly. "Hello... Navi."  
  
Tears sprung in the fairies eyes, as she flew straight into Link's chest, clinging onto his tunic and bawling her eyes out, much unlike the rough and tumble girl she was a few moments back.  
  
While Link and Navi were catching up on their reunion, the other two fairies departed, heading towards the general direction of the Great Deku Tree (Reza couldn't be sure, the Lost Woods robbed her of all her directional senses, with the only thing remaining is her memory of up and down). Kneeling next to the kid, she handed him something the lady gave them.  
  
The lady must have been very trusting in them to have given this to her, believing that they were trying to find her son. As she was the last to check if anything was left behind, the lady rushed to her, spoke hurriedly in her language and thrust the golden locket into her hand, curling her fingers around it. Opening the locket proved to show it was just a picture of the lady cradling the baby with the supposedly son clinging onto her dress, drawn masterfully by an artist.  
  
It was amazing how wide and bright the child's eyes went once she passed him the locket. He looked like he wasn't sure whether he should dare look inside and dash his hopes, but once he did, tears started brimming lightly in his eyes. It was evident in his eyes that his plight will soon end with the help of the three people.  
  
*  
  
Navigating back was so much easier, now that they had a bit of fairy magic to help guide them. Link asked her why they couldn't just randomly walk into a tunnel and get teleported back, but she said it wouldn't work. For the front person it will, since he will have the majority of the fairy shielding on him, but for the rest, once he's teleported back, so would the fairy, and they'll be lost without any guidance. Therefore, they'll just have to take the winding walks and live with it.  
  
Malik was getting dizzy from the passages. They went, left, right, right, left, forward, left, forward, right, right, right, backwards when Navi said they were going the wrong way, right, left, forward, left, left, right, left, forward, forward, forward, right, right, right, right, back when Navi said they were going in circles, left, forward, left, back when Navi said SHE was lost, and now finally, back to the Kokiri forest.  
  
The other fairies, recognised Navi, and welcomed her return, but none of them could recognise Link's face, or remember his spiritual taste. So, it was no surprise they asked her who she was following. With good grace, she told them that it was just a troupe that got lost in the Forest, and she felt that her karma required her to help them.  
  
The other fairies took it in quite well, though most were still dubious, they left them alone after that. The Kokiri children, curious to why the group of four was being accompanied by a fairy, decided that it was better not to ask questions about this bigger people affair. The fairy should know what she's doing, after all.  
  
If the child was any older, he would have seen the short flickers of pain, regret and sorrow in Link's eyes, as he already experienced terrifying moments of being alone, lost, in a place you have know knowledge about. Link's plight was different, with having friends around and knowing where he is, but it hurt to know that his former friends could not recognise him, his friends not remembering how he looked like.  
  
Of course, the child was too young to notice these things, Reza and Malik still had people they knew knowing them, but Navi certainly noticed, with years of wisdom backing up her perception. It was kind of sad, she had to admit, that not a single person among his previous friends (if you don't include Saria) could distinguish Link's face. It could be easily justified, though. They expected him to be a Kokiri child, just as short as them, and as scrawny as they saw him before. None of them would have imagined that this well-toned, battle-hardened war veteran with too many experiences of bloodshed shown in his blazing eyes would have been the same person. If you was expecting someone just above four feet, and looking like a wimp for the only exercise being a few flips everyday and running away from Mido, it can be easily explained that you wouldn't recognise a person above five feet, strength flowing from the weight carried physically and retaining the barest of innocence from the weight carried mentally.  
  
"So, why did you go away from me in the first place?" Link asked, once they got out of the Kokiri Forest and into the open woods of Hyrule field.  
  
"Well, you noticed that when you was with me, I didn't eat that much, right?" Malik and Reza chose to listen in the background.  
  
"Yeah, but I thought you was feeling queasy from staring at ReDeads in what's left of their faces and the spewing of insides when I had to gut some of the creatures that came too close." Malik and Reza chose to listen further away in the background.  
  
Navi peered at link queerly. "Well, yeah, that was one of the main reasons; I'm surprised you ate as much as you did even after that. But the main reasons are that fairies don't need to eat."  
  
Link stared at her. "If you didn't need to eat, how come you always stole the best parts of my food?" Link muttered under his breath something about how fairies get gourmet meals and he gets scraps.  
  
Navi laughed lightly. "Just because we don't need to eat doesn't mean that we don't want to. We have to feed of nature's magic, and there are lines that cross all over Hyrule that pulse with that magic. So long as we are near those lines, and they don't run out, fairies can live over a millennium there. Most fairies don't, since it's so boring, really, with having the same scenery from day one to day ninety one thousand two hundred and fifty, but if you could see magic, Fairy fountains are placed where three or more lines cross over at, so that's why they're so sparse."  
  
Link pondered. "So, you fed off magic. What does that have anything to do with needing to leave?"  
  
Navi sighed as she wiped her purplish bangs away from her eyes. "My dear idiotic friend," Link looked offended at that remark, "surely you must have noticed that Ganondorf - that pig - leeched up a lot of magic to create his fancy (ugly), mighty (pathetic) and big (rubbish) castle of his, and create his army of unswerving soldiers. After you fought him, even when you went back in time, nature was still affected, and the lines were heavily drained. The Lost Woods is Hyrule's largest traffic of these magic lines, and that is why so many fairies come from there originally."  
  
Link mulled it over, and finally spoke out his insight. "Oh."  
  
Malik suddenly piped up. "Just a random prediction, but does the Tree grow on these lines?" Malik found magic a really interesting subject, but found it a shame he only had control over emotions. From what Link told him, Link could bounce all over the place, calm a soul, freeze the undead, change day and night, travel through time, create a storm, talk with nature spirits and much more with just songs. He even envied Reza a bit: she could pull that flame trick with Link, and that was pretty amazing.  
  
Navi bobbed up and down in a gesture of agreement. "Twenty three lines intersect underneath him. Why do you think Ganondorf sent a minion - albeit a really feeble one at that - to guard the Forest Temple instead of some destruction craving monster? The lines are organised in a spider web pattern around the Temple, and if he had a link over to there, he could easily draw up nearly an infinite amount of magic as needed." She concluded.  
  
Link gave an apologetic glance to Malik and Reza, who didn't look like they knew what, was going on. "I had to fight Ganondorf's worker to free up the forests."  
  
Malik soon started his babble. "Wow, he must have been one mighty powerful guy to do that. Hey Reza, Ganondorf was the king of the Gerudo, right? I'm sure I got that fact right, and I'm sure that it is a fact."  
  
"The operative word is 'was'." Reza growled, sensing that he would start ranting on and on.  
  
"Whatever, he was the king. I'm sure it must have been pretty neat to have worked under such a powerful guy. Hey, people say that you are what you eat, and he must have eaten something that packs a punch to pack a punch. I heard that you Gerudo cook some potent curry, do you think you could cook one up for us?"  
  
Reza whacked him on the head. "I'd hit you on the head with the pans before I do that."  
  
Malik pulled his face out of the grass. "Does that mean you'll cook for us? Perfect! Since you hit me already, I don't think that the pans are needed anymore..."  
  
And the conversation dwindled off to idle chat from there.  
  
*  
  
It took a while to get to Kakariko village, since they had to make sure that the boy didn't trail to far behind, Reza stumping their common sense by asking how come no one bothered to try and carry him instead. After that, it was much faster, being blessed with a clear sky and not hindered by the rainstorms that plagued them on their previous trip.  
  
To say that the lady was ecstatic on her son's return would have been an understatement. She started weeping, hugging the boy, hugging everyone, started coddling the boy a bit before offering her foreign currency of gold coins to a confused group, who tried to politely refuse as best as they could.  
  
Malik had tricked Reza into cooking curry by running around with a frying pan, annoying Reza to no end until she whacked him with it. Holding her to her word, he and Link (Navi couldn't stand waiting with that aroma in the air anymore) were sitting at a table, flaring their nostrils occasionally to inhale the scent.  
  
They didn't have to wait any longer, for out came a grouchy Reza, persuaded by Navi to wear that red frilly apron that seemed to be the object of her scowls, pulling a chain of three trolleys of her cooking talents.  
  
When the first dishes were laid, Navi cheerfully said, "I get the first bite!" before diving straight into the closest dish to her, which appeared to be a cabbage type of dish...  
  
... and promptly fluttered back out, fanning herself and squeaking desperately for water.  
  
Link stared at the nearer dishes. If she could even make cabbage taste spicy... "I think I'll pass."  
  
"You think my cooking is bad, is it?" Reza dangerously growled, looming threateningly near.  
  
"Well, no, I don't think it is b-"  
  
"Then you shall eat. I did not waste five hours just to let food waste because you saw your fairy get snuffed by one of my delicacies. Besides, not all of them are supposed to burn your tongue away."  
  
Link hesitantly tried a bite of her fish curry, and soon needed water urgently.  
  
After a while, once Navi got that bad reddening on her face away (by deluging herself in clear water and eating an ice cube she made), they all found that Reza was telling the truth: not all the dishes burnt your tongue away.  
  
In fact, some just tortured your taste buds with an agonising fire, keeping your tongue there to experience every burning second that it lasted, numbing your tongue for a while. There were some non-spicy dishes, of course, she managed to find some rice and cooked up quite a nice tasting dish with that.  
  
After six or seven different dishes, you could plainly see that Malik's teary eyes, red face and sweat weren't caused by dusty air, hot temperatures and humid climate. But he seemed to be enjoying himself, however.  
  
After an hour and a half on gorging themselves on the hottest meal they ever would have tasted (wait till they tried living in the Gerudo Fortress for a week), they said their thanks and appreciation holding back their tongue's demand for water until they were out of Reza's sight. There's no point in hurting her feelings, after all, she spent five hours on it.  
  
Link was lying down on his mattress, Navi re-entangling herself in his hair, mumbling about appreciating small pleasures before bidding him good night. It was still afternoon, but Link agreed with Navi in the prospects of having a nap.  
  
*  
  
"Well, it's nice to know that some of Din's culinary skills passed on - though don't let her catch me saying that." A voice startled Link out of his usually dreamless sleep. Opening his eyes blearily, he saw that he was back in that blank black space where he usually met up with one certain person.  
  
"Hello, Farore. What am I doing here: I thought I only get here if I'm knocked out in a more painful way that sleeping?"  
  
"Damn, I hope that's not permanent damage... huh? Oh, you can get here just by being unconscious, though it is a lot easier after you've been physically exhausted, since your mind is a lot deeper in than now, for instance."  
  
Link was wondering why she was talking about permanent damage, but decided that it was not so important.  
  
"So, can you tell me anything about this 'Second Seal' of yours, while I'm not in any big forms of danger?"  
  
Farore considered it for a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, I guess so, but I'll only tell you what you need to know for now. You can research the rest at the library in the Palace. First off, you know that the first seal to the Sacred Realm, or the Golden Land, is the Master's Sword, right?"  
  
Link nodded.  
  
"Well, it's kind of occupied holding Ganondorf in imprisonment, so it'll be quite a nasty experience if someone pulled the sword out, and even worse if he or she was held in time for a while." Link nodded at that; he certainly didn't like that fact of being held for seven years in a displacement of time and space.  
  
"Well, there are more than just a single seal to the Triforce. The second seal is the will to get there. Whether it is desperation, madness, hope or power-lust, the will to get there without any doubts is what it takes to breach the Gate of Time." She grinned at that. "I'm quite proud of that; materialistic barriers prove nothing except for that you got the items. This spiritual test makes sure that no weak-minded person will try and get the Triforce."  
  
Link nodded at that. It made sense. "But what does that have anything to do with me?"  
  
"Well, since the Second Seal is spiritual, it can be moulded to do the shapes that are within its boundaries, and that means a lot of shapes. Ganondorf got past these seals because he was allowed through the filter, and look what that did to the world. If you can shape it so only certain emotions would get you past the door that would make it even safer."  
  
"Alright, that makes sense, I suppose. But how am I supposed to do that?"  
  
"Well, it's really a complicated met- ... ah damn, Din heard about my acknowledgement of her cooking skills. I'm going to be off hiding in a cloud somewhere for a while, so you won't be seeing me soon. See you!" She bade her farewell before kicking Link out of the place again. This time though, it sent pain flowing through his chest.  
  
When he woke up in a coughing fit, hacking, he saw Navi's concerned face drifting nearby, asking if he was fine.  
  
Muttering to himself, he said: "Well, it's off to Hyrule Castletown then."  
  
A/N: Sorry if you didn't find your wanted gore and action, I figured that this chapter should be on character development and extra progress to the story. If you want the story to flow a certain way (I won't bend it too far away from the main plot in my head), like a new kid introduced a new powers for certain people, I might consider it.  
  
Just to show my appreciation, could you people help chuck in a vote? Since so many people review to their reviewers, I think it's kind of a waste of space (forgive me if you find that insulting) to spend a paragraph to each reviewer. Instead, I think I shall review at the bottom here a fan fiction (Zelda type), the stories of those authors that reviewed and those that I believe are worth reading. Of course, there comes the slight flaw of that there wouldn't be enough stories to review, and I'll have to go to reviewing the latest chapter, but... Anyway, if I get around six or seven affirmatives (shame I only have around 3 constant readers), I'll add it on. Thank you. 


	10. The Great Library

Chapter 10: The Great Library

_Flee. Run. Escape. You must run! A voice cried out. Dark swirls warped and created shape, showing a vague image of a castle. But that was not what kept the audience enraptured. It was the odd tinge of purple and grey, deforming the shades and hues and giving a grim effect._

But that was not what made it grim. The physical appearance was far better than the feelings, vibes that rolled off it.

_What has happened? Our World is being tainted, poison creeps through the very blood of nature, venom lurking within the Streams of Time. What has happened to this World, what has happened to its civilians?_

A sudden and brief black flash sparked, swallowing the image of the castle, and replacing it with the previous dark swirls. The dark swirls and thoughts.

It was being replaced with angry thoughts, mad thoughts, and crazy thoughts.

It was the thoughts of civilians.

_Alex__ doesn't think I can beat him in sword skill, eh? Well I'll show his pompous face that nobody lives after gloating. I'll show him that nobody lives after being stabbed in their sleep. Let's see him beat me there, but he can't beat me, and I'll make sure he never will._

An emotion cracked upon the mind of the visitor to these new and disturbing images. He held his hands to his head and tried to block it out. 

_I shall be the best. Cassandra might have the best garden, but I'll remedy that. I shall grow my garden the best, and pull ruins among hers. I will win. And the thing I love about this deal is this: I will win, she will not. Let's see that upstart idiot cry._

He gripped his head, shaking it side to side and murmured, "No, make it stop, don't speak like that, please..." 

_My child is dead! I bet it was that vile, nasty witch _from that Potion shop that drugged him! I feel it in my bones! She will pay for the life of my child, with blood! My daughter's life will not have left un-avenged! That old hag must be burnt at the stake! That old hag must DIE!!!__

He clutched as tight as possible into a ball, small trickles of tears appearing. What by the Goddesses was going on?

_Our World has been tainted, and our greatest ally and worst foe is the only one who can aid us. But the madness is encroaching on our lands, and we must run._

_We must flee..._

_...we must escape..._

Malik bolted up awake, his chest heaving heavily from the assault and sweat drenching his clothes. What by the Goddesses was that?

*

Malik was a bit silent and brooding after the dream. He, along with Link and Reza, were riding horses at a slow gait, the gates of Castletown as their destination. Malik felt like visiting the Temple to see the priests if they could help him interpret the weird dream he had. It seemed to be focussed around the emotion of madness, he believed. They could help him.

Navi was bobbing to a tune that only she knew, singing softly to the winds as she danced around Link's head. Link was stroking Epona's neck, staring at the horizon in deep thought. Reza was just being grouchy at something for no apparent reason. 

Now that Malik thought about it, Link never told him – he doubted Link told Reza either – about how he attained his fairy, aside from staying with the Kokiri and those interesting spells and items. He was sure it would be a very interesting tale to hear. After all, the hookshot that Link seemed to carry around at his waist was once rumoured to be the fabled treasure of Dampe the grave keeper.  

He was cut out of his musings with Reza's shriek. 

"What by Din's Fire are you doing?"

Looking over at Link, it seemed that he had given up on staring at the horizon. Now, he was doing the very risky act of firing an arrow into the sky at an angle forwards, and catching it when it falls down. It bore great risks of stabbing his arm, and also of falling straight into Epona's back. Link had already done two successful tosses and catches, gripping it in between his index and middle finger just after the tip when it fell.

"I'm entertaining myself." Link responded, firing the same arrow back in the sky again. But before he could catch it again, Malik tossed a knife to cut the thing in two and deflect most of its momentum. Link caught on the meaning and seemed mildly disappointed, but soon resumed staring at the horizon again.

Riding closer to Reza, Malik whispered, "Is it just me or does Link seemed to be slightly odd today?" Reza nodded lightly, but motioned for them to take this discussion sometime later.

They had already covered two days worth of travelling, and by what Link and Navi said, only would have needed at the very most another two days.

*

Reza had to grudgingly admit something about Link: he was a great strategist. If the game was chess, checkers, go, or anything remotely relying on your own logic and employing tactics, Link would most likely have won. They were presently hiding under a jutting rock against the sun's rays, and Malik was panicking at how many pieces he was losing in the game of go. Link was calmly waiting for him to make his move.

They weren't really worried about attacks right now. In broad daylight, Stalchids wouldn't dare rise from their graves to disturb passer-bys, and she highly doubted that those Dark Copies (Link made that name up, considering that Navi didn't know what they were either) would be stupid enough to attack while sunlight isn't filtered. After all, if what Link said was true, that they were pretty much condensed shadow with a mind, sunlight should have been very painful to their skin.

How wrong she was.

Navi, who had been hovering above, to monitor the landscapes while the three were engrossed in their little board game, gave a small cry of surprise, alerting Link and the others of something, possibly threatening, coming. Folding away the go board and tossing the stones into a small pouch, Link scrambled over the rock to see what was going on.

Over in the distance, coming from the direction of the Kokiri Forest, was a group – no, a battalion – of Dark Copies, armed with adequate weaponry and armour. Link had just wondered why they looked so tall and were moving so fast.

Malik was the first to figure it out. "By Nayru, those things are mounted!"

Navi looked troubled at that, and flew closer to the approaching Copies, before zooming back and confirming what Malik had said.

Reza frowned. "Well, it looks like we found out why those Dark Copies in Lon-Lon ranch wanted horses." 

Link was quick to action. He whipped out his bow, knocked in an arrow and charging it slightly with mana, whispered a soft word of 'light' before releasing it. The shot was a marvellous one, but it did not achieve what the four of them had hoped for – the Dark Knight and the two accompanying him that the purifying arrow had been targeting at raised their arms, and with a small amount of effort dispelled the magic on the arrow and calmly blocked the normal arrow with his shield.

Link motioned for them to come over. "I think that the best way to tackle these guys is on horseback and up close." Reza nodded in agreement, but Malik looked slightly worried.

"I can't fight on horseback, I only use knives!" Malik said, but Reza waved that excuse off.

"Your masks should deal sufficient damage, providing those things aren't immune to that too." Malik paused for a second, before nodding hesitantly.

Mounting their horses, the group charged forward.

Covering half the distance, they encountered a few problems.

Those Dark Knights, and possibly those Dark Horses were giving off a feeling of fear, and while Link, Reza and Malik were strong enough to ignore it, Reza's and Malik's horses weren't. Epona, who had once, ran through thick and thin, wasn't too affected by it, but those two mounts were trying to turn back in fear.

That was the first problem, but it was easily countered. All Malik had to do was keep up a mask of calmness to ward away the interfering emotions, but he told them that it would tax his powers the longer he had to hold it up.

The second problem was what Navi had noticed. "Hey! Those things are armed with spears, so I don't know how you're going to get close, and they're wearing a veil that is protecting them from the sunlight! Whatever your plan is, I hope you complete it fast!" It was very unsettling that from the Dark Knight's horse's steady gait charged into a full out stampede of thirty mounts of death.

Link was knocking another arrow into his bow and firing like crazy, hoping to catch them off guard without giving them time to diffuse the magic. Some times that plan worked, and he pulled down the closest two among the thirty Dark Knights without too much problems, but other times it was harder as they advanced slower this time to maintain their formations so that surrounding Knights could help block the magic attack.

Reza had no idea why Link was maintaining his fruitless attack, but while it was keeping them distracted, she charged in, Malik nearby to keep her horse calm while throwing a few knives to keep the nearby Knights occupied. She growled in annoyance – at some point, she would have to remind her superiors in the Fortress to start teaching how to fight on horseback – with her scimitars, she could only swipe at the Knights on her sides, having to ride round by guiding the horse with her heels, a task she was stumbling with, and swinging with one sword to strike the opponents, as using her standard two would take much of her control away from her and would require her to share out the strength of each blow. Also considering that it would have been hard to do that while on a horse, using two swords wasn't practical.

They were closing in on her, while she kept on hacking away, a furious expression on her face, when Malik came to her rescue.

Charging closer while they were distracted, he flipped his mask and let loose a strong wave of sympathy, trying to deter those surrounding Knights to hold off. It worked better than that, knocking the closer Dark Knights off their horses and sending the rest tumbling backwards. Reza did not waste this opportunity, running her mare over the downed Dark Knights and leaving some painful hoof prints on them.

A few metres to their left, Link had given up on firing Light arrows and was slashing wildly with his Gilded Sword. He scowled as he had to raise his sword to block an incoming spear, but was smiling throughout.

'These Dark Knights', Link thought, a faint smile could be traced on his lips, 'are either very confident in their protection against Light or very stupid.' Link remembered in the Ikana Castle, when he fought Igos de Ikana and his two guards; they were very weak to light. It was only those curtains that protected them.  

As the Dark Knights slowly encircled him, a light smile appeared on his face. 'Fools' a hollow laugh escaped his lips at the thought.

"Din's Fire!" Link yelled out, imbuing a small amount of magic into his clothes, equipment, Navi and Epona to protect them from the blazing fire. The Dark Knights weren't granted that protection, and the mystical inferno scorched at them.

But that was not what vanquished them from the world. As Navi had noted, they were protected by the sun's light by a veil, and the fire had left what was left of that protection as a cinder.

Earlier on, when the Great Fairy had granted him access to the gem of Din's Fire, he had spent two days contemplating on how to work it. At first it had a radius as long as his spinning sword attacks, with the only bonus of setting things on fire and taking them by surprise. Otherwise, he had concluded that it was a waste of energy, being heavily taxing as he could only cast four of them before sweating from exhaustion.

Now, through using the fire as a weapon (and a shield, he remembered in the Water Temple, to vaporise those water tentacles), the spell could cover six of him with his arms outstretched in each direction. With a fifteen metre diameter, it was amazing how he had obliterated half of the Dark Knights.

Five of the remaining sixteen Dark Knights chose him as the greater threat, and they went off to corner him. Link decided that their numbers wasn't big enough to waste another chunk of his magic on, so met them head on.

Reza was enjoying the tactic that she and Malik mutually agreed with. Malik would send out a wave of compassion, knocking a few of the Dark Knights back down onto the ground where she'll stampede (with Malik following behind) over them, taking a few swipes at the still mounted but stunned Knights, actually managing to destroy a few.

She was startled with the cry of 'Din's Fire' and so were the Dark Knights, and turning around she was greeted to the view of Link surrounded by a radius of toasted ground and the faint wisp trails that was evidence of Dark Copies dying at that spot.

Five of the group that she once was pounding endlessly on turned away to take on Link. Reza almost laughed at that.

'They dare turn their backs to a Gerudo,' she thought with grim amusement, 'fools.' 

She didn't get to charge at them when Malik completed the job for her. The moment they turned around, he pulled out seven throwing knives and with deadly accuracy, aimed at their necks. It didn't exactly hit their necks, but it certainly damaged that veil they wore.

Link, who was still charging, took a while to notice that his quarries were not there anymore. Epona, however, did notice, and was using this to her full advantage. While the eleven remaining Dark Knights were being stunned, hesitant and apprehensive, she charged into the lot and bulldozed one into the ground, hooves flailing as she snuffed the animation out of that one.

Link would have used Din's Fire again, but Malik and Reza were too close to be in range, and too far for him to offer the protection against the fire. Once he had gathered his wits, he was hacking mercilessly at the nearby Dark Knight.

That prompted the rest into action, as they were trying to jab their spears into Link. Unfortunately, they had forgotten about Reza and Malik, and that proved to be most of their undoing. Malik gave off another wave of fealty, which surprisingly did not unhorse any of them, but stunned them. Reza had started swiping at their necks, seeing that the veil was the thing protecting them against the sun. 

The Dark Knights were forced to turn around to engage this threat again, when Link hacked at them again from behind.

This volley continued for a while, and when there was only one Dark Knight left with surprising common sense, it fled the scene.

"Well guys," Link spoke finally, once making sure the remaining Dark Knight was out of sight, "I believe we would have to travel on foot now – those horses don't look very healthy to me." 

*

While Malik and Reza left those horses behind to rest and recover, Link assured them that Epona would be able to find them. To make things fair, he also walked on the ground as well, using Epona to carry the food supplies and equipment.

The present topic they were aimlessly talking about was weapons.

"You guys got impressive weaponry, but I believe that they could be improved," Link said, gesturing to his sword. "It's a shame that this blade is getting a bit short, and I'll have to replace it soon, but I believe a bit of gold dust and a good smith would be able to make your swords incredibly durable." 

Reza nodded, thinking about it. "Gold dust is very rare, and I highly doubt you'll get any in Hyrule anymore – I think that the Royal Palace Guards' equipment used the very last of it. I also don't think that there is a smith alive that can forge with it anymore." She sighed in demoralization.

Malik glumly nodded. "Too true I have to say. I have to say though, there has been rumours among the peddlers were passed by of something called diamond sparks, it was said to make a sword so sharp it could cleave steel effortlessly. I'd love to get my hands into some of that." 

Link smiled. "Well, if we can get any of that stuff, I know a great Goron smith that would be able to create our dream weapons, though when I say 'great Goron', I mean it figuratively and literally. He lives on a side of Death Mountain, and while the trip to reach him is perilous with all the falling rocks, it's worth it in the end."

Reza nodded as she stared at the sky. The sun was setting slowly; painting the sky with a tinge of red, and to moon was slowly cropping up from the east, with stars steadily glowing into existence. The contrast of colours was magnificent, the soothing glow of the moon reflected off clouds, and the relaxing glow of the sun travelling across the sky. With the dark bluish purple on one side of her vision, and with just a turn of her head to see the ending red glow, it suddenly became not so surprising that it was the sky that kept Link cheerful throughout his battle-weary life.

"We'll need to quicken our pace slightly, the drawbridge closes at night." 

They managed to get inside in time, the soldier warning them that next time they should come in at daylight if they don't want to rouse suspicion. Link waved it off, and searched for a stable to put Epona.

"Through all my life I have never seen such a large number of Dark Copies," Navi said bewildered. "I bet I have travelled further than you have, in Hyrule at least, and not once do I know of a place where these things live."

Link responded while unhooking all the equipment off Epona. "Maybe they're like swords: they're manufactured to fight. Maybe they're from another place far from Hyrule, where light doesn't touch. There, Epona, sorry you had to carry our load around." 

Epona whinnied in response. Navi looked thoughtful. "It's possible, though it would take a lot of magic to infuse Shadow into a body and make them bow to your will, and it will take a lot of time to march an army through just to get here. Neither sounds possible with all the mortal restrictions." 

Link was silent for a moment, giving Epona a good scrub. After that, he shifted the hay around until it made comfortable bedding for her. "Well, maybe the creators are like you fairies, living very, very long? Have a good rest, Epona." Taking the lamp out and closing the door while Epona took her required rest.

"You spoil that girl, do you know that? But even we fairies are bound by some rules to prevent us from doing anything outrageously powerful." Navi settled under his cap again when they were out in the open again – no need for anyone to know that a fairy resides very close to them.

"I guess whoever made them is one heck of a rule breaker. Look at the way we lived, Navi, on the road and in the bush, usually with a lot of thorns – if I can offer any luxuries to you or Epona, I will." He whispered softly, a serene smile on his face as he approached the inn. A few dogs barked outside, whining when he wouldn't let them in. Navi mumbled in agreement before heading off into slumber. Heading upstairs, he decided to follow her example.

*

"Well, well, it looks like this thing can be beaten after all." A lady murmured, revolving around a boy. "Wake up, Link, you do not need to be asleep in sleep." She booted him to drive in her point.

"Ouch, I'm up." Link groaned, to be welcomed by the sight of Farore again. This time, she was sitting cross-legged on a drifting cloud, resting her head on one palm with that arm's elbow on her knee, with the other arm free to gesture.

"No actually, you're still asleep. Why do you still insist on snoozing through your sleep, anyway? But back to the point: I suggest that you guys stay in Castletown, if you can stay in the Palace for a while. The healing would do you good. Go donate in the Temple of Time if you can, the priests that reside there live off nothing but their faith; I dare say that they deserve more."

Link rolled over, and tried to conjure a cloud of him to sit on too. Figuring it as something only a Goddess could do, he just went to his question. "What do you mean by healing?" 

Farore paused in deep thought. "Well, since it looks like it will be cured in no time, I might as well tell you anyway. You know when what you called a Dark Saria hit you with the energy blade?" Link nodded, peering down to see the cut. It was almost gone. "Well, that thing contained a bit of very dark essence, which was slowly infecting you like a virus. Being near Princess Zelda, the only person nearby that is mostly light instead of dark, is slowly removing this infection."

Link blinked. "So... what would have happened if it finished infecting me?" 

Farore shrugged. "You'll become a mad, pessimistic bloke that follows the words of whoever created those Dark Copies, as you call it. That's an interesting name you came up with to give them, really, where'd you get the idea."

Link chose to forget the second part. "Speaking of which, who created those Dark Copies?"

Farore sighed and closed her eyes, her expression showing that she was concentrating hard. She eased out of that expression, and gave her all knowing reply: "I don't know."

Link stared. "You're a Goddess for crying out loud! How can you not know?"

Farore nodded. "Yes, I'm a Goddess, but remember, I did not create everything, and my sisters and I aren't the only divine beings in existence. There are more, far more, and there may be a dark deity of some sort that creates that stuff. Nayru, Din and I are pretty much oriented around Light, so in balance there should be some that are oriented around Shadow." Link had to agree with that. Balance was fundamental, and if it was to exist down in the world, it should exist up there wherever divine beings live.

"So, how come you can't cure me then, if you're a Light person?" Farore sighed.

"There are rules that even we have to follow. Rule number one: unless of great importance or of high crisis, you are not allowed to intervene." 

"Then what do you call now?"

"I am not intervening, as I am not here. That too is why I can't heal you, even if you can see me."

"Then what do you call the time when you went down to act as a storyteller?"

Farore paused. "I call that rule ignoring."

Link sighed, and was about to ask another question when Farore interrupted. "Well, it looks like it's waking time for you now – don't forget about looking into the library, alright? It's amazing how a moment here is a hour in your world." Before Link could respond to that either, she booted him out in her customary fashion.

Seeing him wink out of this plane, she mused for a while. "I'm grateful that only his clothing accompanies him. It would be a shame to change my routine of kicking him just because he's wearing steel. Heh, he's certainly one heck of a kid." Smiling lightly, she hopped out of that plane afterwards.

*

 When Link had roused Reza and Malik from their sleep (receiving a flick at his nose from Reza – apparently she likes her sleep), they strolled towards the castle gates.

Malik and Reza were astounded by the sights that greeted them. As Reza lived in a desert, people tended to keep a small distance away from each other to prevent from absorbing unneeded heat, and didn't talk much unless were in doors where it was cooler. Here was a bustling town, fully packed with people all shouting, laughing, talking or bargaining at full volume. Malik was also surprised by the numbers, but since Kakariko village was a sleepy town, quiet in most cases, the noise was certainly bombarding.

It was quite the juxtaposition of the palace grounds, where the guards were sparse and spread far apart, and rarely did they talk to each other.

"Halt! Who are you three, and why do you approach?" The gate guard questioned, to which Link answered.

"We are not of great importance, but please tell Princess Zelda that Link is here and requesting use of the palace's facilities."  

The guard raised an eyebrow, but sent a runner to deliver the message. In the mean time, "So, anyone for a game of cards?"

It took quite a while, but when the runner returned seven minutes later, he was surprised to see that the guard was had left his spear at his post, took off his helmet and was sitting cross-legged while he played a game of blackjack against the other three.

The runner cleared his throat to gain their attention. "The Princess Zelda grants them permission to enter the palace grounds."

The guard looked slightly disappointed as he wiped his brown hair away from his face. "Ah well, what a shame. This probably was the most fun I had in my eight months worth of duty. If you pop by, I guess I could show you around a bit." Getting up, he donned his helmet again and took hold of his spear.

"Well, we'll be sure to see you at some point. We'll see you later, Tylos!" Malik said to his new found friend, Tylos gave them a brief salute before they walked in.

*

Zelda was in the middle of a geography lesson where the teacher was lecturing on and on about suggested course of action if Hyrule's population was shrinking or expanding too fast, ways to maintain farmland without requiring the need of destroying too much wild forestation. Zelda was taking notes half-heartedly and doodling at the edges of her manuscript.

In short, she was bored.

It came as a great relief when Impa had arrived, saying that Link wished to come into the palace. Zelda gave her reply almost instantaneously; finally, she can do something aside from sit on a chair and take notes for a while! While she did know that they were trying to mould her to the best leading figure, storing the required information in case the land was having difficulties, did they have to make it so boring?

Now she was waiting at the beginning of the grand halls that led through the palace. The last time she saw Link was about a year ago. Impa was waiting beside her, arms crossed in her usual fashion, standing poised.

Impa flicked a glance at Zelda. "Stop fidgeting, princess. Link is not going to bite you." 

Zelda nodded, a faint blush adorning her face. "Well, yes, but I never saw Link for a long time, and I wonder if he's still angry with me."

Impa gave off a short laugh. "Oh princess, you worry too much. If he's still the same Link as we remember, he doesn't hold grudges for long. You can see it for yourself, for here he comes."

As the doors creaked open, layers of ornate gold and hidden steel slowing the time it took, Zelda awaited the dramatic entrance Link might try just for the fun of it.

"Ow! You hit my face!" 

Zelda blinked. Looking at the scene, a boy with blue hair was clutching his face, a girl with red long hair looking apologetic, and Link laughing at the scene.

"Well, Link ducked my backhand! How was I supposed to know that you were in the way?" The red haired girl said, to which Link gave off another laugh at. Seeing that Zelda was around, he tried to contain his mirth and elbowed Malik and Reza to get their attention.

"Um, welcome to Hyrule castle." She said, a tinge of confusion adorning her speech and face. Impa simply looked amused.

*

"So, you came to ask if you can use the palace library." Zelda stated, trying to place the facts back into the right spot. Link nodded. "You won't tell me what you are searching for; because it's a secret you want to keep." Link nodded. "You say it is of utmost importance that you find the information." Link paused for a moment, and then nodded.

She sighed. "Oh well, Impa will be able to lead you to the library. Anyone you would like to bring with you?" 

Link thought for a moment. "I'll bring Malik along. You and Reza can catch up on girl-talk or whatever females do in their spare time." Zelda looked somewhat surprised, and Reza looked insulted. Before Reza could do any bodily harm to either Link or Malik, Impa dragged both of them along.

"Well, at least you made friends along the way. I was worried that you would be roaming the grounds alone." Impa started. Link nodded silently, admiring the architecture. Malik was hopping from one side of the halls to the other, staring through the windows and taking a good look at the raised pictures of the royal family and some majestic paintings of some anonymous people and places.

"I think that when I decide to settle down a bit, I'll become a smith." Link said, gazing at a rack of halberds they just passed by. 

Impa gave a snort. "Well, you'll have to grow a bit chunkier, but I believe you can do it." Considering the fact that he had probably used a sword and shield more than anyone else, he should know the exact measurements to make the perfect weapon, should he decide to be a sword-smith. "Well, here's the library. I'll be back in four hours, which should be enough time to find what you're looking for."

Giving a short bow, she departed, leaving both of them in a room with dozens of rows full of books. Link took a long look at the agonising numbers of books. "I'll start on the left, you search on the right."

*

Reza found Zelda to be a boring person to be with. She seemed to enjoy the wonders of gardening, reading and all those stuff that princesses did in their free time. Reza, being from a battle trained society, found those wonders really plain. She understood the values of gardening and reading, but didn't hold those values as high as everything else.

They were sitting down in one of the halls (Reza swore there were more than just six), reading in companionable silence. Reza found it annoying that there were no such things as fiction books, tales from mouth to ear then to paper. It was with great relief that Impa came back, with Link and Malik trailing behind.

"So, did you find anything?" she asked.

"Well, what we were searching for didn't seem to be in the usual sections of history, geography, science, mythology or craftsmanship, so we had to search in the mystical section." 

Zelda raised an eyebrow. "You can read ancient Hylian text? I'm impressed." 

Link smiled slightly at that. "There, we learnt two, no, three things." Impa gestured for them to continue.

"Well," Malik said, sticking out his fingers to count off, "the first thing we found was that you have a lot of books." Impa stared for a moment. "The second thing was that those books are very old." Zelda paused. "The third thing was that we can't read a word from any of those books." Reza laughed.

"I take back what I said about being impressed." Zelda deadpanned. Link gave an apologetic smile, shrugging. 

"I might as well go with you this time, I can read ancient Hylian." Zelda shook her head, muttering about incompetence under her breath.

Impa could only think 'this is going to be a very long day.'

A/N: Ha! I finished! Sorry if the time it took was far too long for your liking. I'm testing to see if ff.net shows word formatting if I use HTML format. Well, hopefully the next one won't be such a drag, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter at least.


	11. The Second Seal

Chapter 11: The Second Seal

"Hey, Zelda," Link asked, as he poured over a manuscript, "what does this thing say?"

Zelda, who was busy explaining to Reza what a different tome said, rushed over. "It talks about a sacred garden by the name of Eden that bears the fruits of-" she was interrupted when Link, who was nodding alongside what she said, shoved the manuscript aside and surveyed the next.

"What does this thing say? It got a pretty picture of a sword; I think it might be related." Malik said to which Zelda wiped a small line of sweat away from her brow and walked there.

"It speaks of a time when the monarchy was corrupt and of distant lands that broke into war with Hyrule-" Malik nodded and shoved it aside to randomly pick up another tome.

She was about to take a rest when Reza spoke up. "Zelda, look here," she said, gesturing to the crumbling sheet was staring at for the last three minutes, "it looks flashy enough to be of some use."

Inhaling, she walked over, and took a look at the sheet. "Once upon a time there was a prince who was as bratty as a... can't read that that got his palace cursed by his rudeness against a witch in disguise to turn into a beast-" Reza was gone already, searching the volumes of tomes for a dusty looking one.

"I think I got something, Zelda, can you come over to translate?"  Panting from exhaustion, she dragged her feet over

"I think it talks about a place of ice, where everything is frozen beyond reason and that even the cold of the place can freeze time itself-" Link shoved it aside and went to search for another piece.

Malik was speed reading through a scroll before he gestured for Zelda to translate.

Zelda paused for a moment, stared at the thing and replied. "I believe, no I think, that it will be best if you guys learnt how to read ancient Hylian. I'm not as fit as you guys are, and I definitely can't handle the task of walking around and translating, especially since we have over six hundred books under the mystical section!" She pinched the bridge of her nose for a while.

Impa, who had been standing at the entrance of the library, looked amused at the scene. "I must agree with the princess, it will be much more convenient, though I dare say that she needs the exercise." Zelda looked affronted at that. "Nonetheless, if you all could read ancient Hylian you won't be picking books like that." She pointed to the tome that Link had pulled out.

"What's that?" Reza couldn't help but ask.

Impa gave a small smile. "The name of the books reads as 'four hundred ways to turn Baptists into frogs, seven hundred ways to turn friends into goats and one thousand ways to turn parents into sheep." Link stared at the book.

"Oh, so that's why I keep seeing pictures of sheep mating." He stated, turning the book around and pointing to some evidence. Zelda almost cried.

"Cheer up, princess Zelda, at least you get to use those talents those instructors drilled into you." Impa said coolly, before walking over to reorganise the books.

"Yeah, and we get to learn a new language!" Malik cheered, hopping onto a table and pointing to a far distance, the very stance of a revolutionist.

Reza walked past and knocked his feet down. "It's an old language, you dope." With an audible thump and a quiet squeak Malik fell off the table.

Link had to really appreciate the antics of his friends. Navi, for some reason, didn't really like to talk when Zelda was around, usually snuggling into his hair and taking a nap. He couldn't bring Epona up here, as it would look insulting, so that meant that there would be few people to talk to aside from Zelda. That wasn't a bad thing, of course, but he really wasn't very happy when she sent him back in time without his permission. He was grateful for it, though. At least with Malik and Reza around, he'd have more company.

The hallways that Zelda was leading him through weren't spectacular. Moreover, just like the Lost Woods and the Sheikah Caverns, each hallway was identical to the other, the only landmark distinguishable being what you see outside the windows and the portraits on the walls. Link didn't like those portraits; they always looked like they were staring at him. It was very, very creepy.

Malik was having a blast questioning Impa which room they passed was. "What room was that one?"

"It was the secondary dining room."

"What about that room?"

"It's a tertiary study room."

"What about that one?"

"Torture chamber." 

Malik stared. He walked up close to the door, and put an ear on the door. Not much sound was coming from the room, but he was sure he could here something.

Impa laughed. "You are too naïve. That room is the maids' secondary personal living quarters. No torture goes on in there, unless they do it outside our sight." Malik was visibly relieved, though he chose not to ask anymore questions.

Reza had to admit, for a princess who stayed in too much for health, she certainly would get a lot of exercise. There were steps that spiralled up and some that travelled down. Ladders were used in smaller areas and grandeur steps for the wider and more pronounced places. Reza believed that they were going down, basically, for at times she was certain they travelled all the way up a turret just to go to another set of staircases. Zelda seemed to be slightly panting though, and requested that they stop for a moment.

"You certainly have a big palace." Link said, admiring the view of outside from up high, in one of the sentry turrets. "Look, you can see that busy Sakon look-alike from up here, passing stuff in between stalls!" He pointed to the market working on below.

Reza gave him an odd look. "Who's Sakon?"

Link wasn't thinking when he answered. "He's a thief from Ikana Canyon." 

"Eh? Where's that?" 

"Termina."

"Eh?"

Link paused for a moment. "We're still in Hyrule, right?"  Reza nodded. "Oh, then it's nothing you have to worry about, unless you think that someone stole your stuff or something." Reza chose not to bother with that line of speech.

"Well, just about another five sets of staircases and then we'll finally arrive." Zelda said once she caught her breath. Navi had already popped out of Link's hair and was examining the view without the woven nest of hair she made in the way. 

"Why are there so many steps just to reach one measly room?" Malik asked. "I'm not complaining, but doesn't it seem a bit... redundant?" 

Impa answered that question. "Knowledge is power, and hence, it is unsafe to give out power so easily to people. If you were to burn every book you saw in the library we just searched through, it'd be only a scratch upon the vast stores of information held within this palace. Reading ancient Hylian is very important, as potent spells written in ages past are all in that language, so it is stored among all the other vaults of information." 

Reza asked a question. "What's wrong with people learning stuff? Doesn't it mean the betterment of society if everyone knows how to do things better?" 

Zelda nodded, and carefully phrased her response. "Yes, that is true, but if everyone were to learn so that even the most simplest carpenter to levitate planks of wood and hammer away, that means that there are more people who are armed with more information to be of greater threat."

"But wouldn't that be countered by the number of people that have the right skills to fight off that threat?" Reza countered. "In the Gerudo Fortress, if one Sister makes a discovery that she believes would help improve everyone's well-being, she usually gladly spreads it but by law you are to share it with everyone else. If you got a bad apple in the crop that mutilates that discovery for her own purposes, there are hundreds of people that will be able to subdue her and see what went wrong, improving the society even further."

Zelda nodded, thinking of that. They started climbing down another set of steps. "True, you hold a point there, but what if there were more people in the dangerous person's league? What if there was an organised group that were against you, now armed with knowledge to enhance them?"

Reza waved her hand to air it away. "What ifs, there are so many 'what if' in this world. No offence, but you need to learn to trust your people better, like my Sisters. We feel that there is no need to bear grudge among ourselves, that there is no need to intrude upon another's privacy and endanger any of our sisters. Besides, if there was an organised group against you, it probably means that there is something about you that they don't like, and that has to be remedied."

Zelda nodded. "I'll take note of that. It's such a shame that not everyone in the world believes the same thing like you Gerudo; it'd cause less strife among people."

They were silent for a moment, when Malik spoke up. "What are those improvements your Sisters find?"

Reza shrugged. "They're mostly materialistic," she said nonchalantly, "mostly about improvements on the fibre woven fabric of our battle garb and how to heat steel the best level that it is flexible but still sharp. Some are religious, like what offerings should be offered to the Goddesses that would hold greater value, and a few are just beliefs that make us better, like only having one Fire and Ice Witch." 

Link asked at that. "Speaking of them, are Kotake and Koume still keeping their jobs?" Reza scowled.

"Don't mention their names. They whisked off after it was pronounced that Ganondorf was dead, no one knows where they went. The last thing they did was freezing the insides of our Fortress and burns whatever outside to a crisp.  It took us over three weeks to defrost everything, you know that?"

"Well, we're here," Zelda said, quickly cutting that avenue of thought, "there should be a couple of dictionaries around to help. I think I'll go fetch us some drinks, I'm sure Impa would be able to teach you quite nicely." With that she waltzed out of the room, certain that it would have been torture trying to teach those three.

Malik walked to a rack of books and pulled out a dictionary. Randomly flipping a page, he called out, "Hey guys look! Guess what the translation for disembowelment is!"

Impa strode over and plucked the book from his grasp. "Let's start at the basics, shall we?"

*

Not surprisingly, Zelda came back almost taking half an hour, and she had found a servant to carry the tray of drinks and assortments of pastries. The servant placed it on a nearby table, bowed quickly and left. Zelda surveyed the room: Link, Reza and Malik were in a huddle studying a book, Impa was looking half frustrated half amused, and Navi, who was drifting above the trio, was laughing her guts out.

"So, what did you learn?" She highly doubted they would have gotten any significant progress in such short time, but it was said to be moralising to believe they gotten somewhere.

"Well, the sound of 'swill-dove' for the word of urinating does sound oddly proper." Link stated. Navi laughed some more.

Malik sounded excited. "I think I just properly translated this sentence! It says, 'Never cook your hair as you sit on a dish'... Well, that makes sense, I suppose."

Navi hummed over to see that sentence and laughed some more. "It says 'never brush your hair as you cook a dish'." 

Reza shrugged. "Close enough." 

Impa walked over to Zelda. "They're your job now, you deal with them." With that being said, she waltzed out of the room, leaving Zelda to fend off on her own.

Zelda sighed. It looked like she would be trapped for in for quite a while.

*

Four days had passed with her educating as much as possible about ancient Hylian text. To her credit, Navi helped teach them how to speak it with the proper accents. Thankfully, the grammar was only slightly different from present Hylian speech, so there were little problems there. Through over sixty six hours worth of hard, torturous and mind blowing work, the three were now quite adept at reading the tomes that they were searching for.

"Just search for anything that speaks of a Second Seal, and possibly something about the Triforce." Link said, speed reading a scroll to see if it held any of his chosen words.

Malik and Reza were a bit dubious about the knowledge on the Triforce – after all, if anything with so much power existed on this world, how come no one came over to dominate it flat without any resistance? They didn't know that it had happened once, to which Link had stopped with gruelling effort. 

Thinking about it, a Second Seal sounded like a good idea, Link thought. Hopefully, whoever that is allowed by the Second Seal would be strong enough to battle Ganondorf, held by the First Seal. It should be easy enough, with the Master Sword holding him in place. Link knew that Ganondorf was extremely hard; by all means it would be foolish to think that the battle would be over in ten minutes, as it took him nearly thirty minutes, but like all other creatures, they had a very strict pattern that they unswervingly followed to their own doom.

Getting back onto line, Farore had told him to mould the Second Seal into something more physical than just a bunch of thoughts. He really was wondering how by Nayru he was supposed to do that. He assumed it can't be something as simple as a coin, as that will get you nowhere, and it would be very easy to lose, much less find. Oh well, he was the bearer of the Triforce of Courage, he'll be able to think of something when the time comes.

Reza was aimlessly reading a script called 'The Desert's Tears' that spoke about a legendary Gerudo King, who died a mournful death and was said to be reborn at some point to lead the Gerudo to succession when a soldier rushed in.

"Princess Zelda!" He panted, clutching onto his spear tightly, "There has been a sudden aerial attack to the turrets!"

Zelda looked worried, and had every reason to be. "What is attacking, who is attacking?"

The guard was leading them towards the nearest safety spot. "We really don't know! All that our archers – the ones still standing, anyway – know of is that it is black, flies around in a flurry and shoots really sharp black arrows, alongside the fact that they're roughly our side, each one of them."

"How many are they?" Reza asked.

"We found it hard to count their numbers, since they kept moving so fast, but I believe their numbers were in between two and four, thankfully."

Link frowned. The description of the attackers being black seemed to sound very familiar, and not in a good way. "Are they attacking any particular area?"

The guard unlocked an iron gate. "Well, they're attacking the north east wing, where our arcane sanctum is held. Down here should be safe enough, there are over a dozen guards patrolling down here. Quickly get in princess!"

Link nodded. "Yes, you're right. Zelda, you go in, guard, lead me to where those flying black things are. Reza, I suggest you stay down here too."

Reza raised an eyebrow, fingering the hilt of one of her scimitars. "Oh? You don't think I can fend for myself, do you?"

Link shook his head. "I know better than to challenge you in head to head combat, but what we're facing up there are all ranged fighters, and they fly. You can't hit a flying thing while you're on the ground without some form of ranged attack."  Reza shrugged at that.

"Who said I didn't hold any form of distance fighting?" She pulled out what looked like slightly curved blades attached at the centre to make some disc-looking thing if you spun it. "This is pretty much a bladed boomerang." Link looked at it fascinated; it didn't look like his. "The only problem is that since it is quite heavy, it takes a lot of effort to throw, and it takes a long time to travel. Otherwise, it packs a hard punch."

Link allowed her to come, and following the guard as they rushed through corridors, taking quick snatches of the view through the windows to see if he could see any of those flying things. Nothing was seen. But the sounds of arrows flying, bows singing and the occasional pain filled cry smothered the air. This didn't sound very promising, though, for even though those Dark Copies rarely made a sound, they did make one of those poof noises when they died.

When they finally ascended to the highest turret, Malik grimaced at how bad it was. From his vantage point, he could see that roughly fourteen men were injured, and everyone was running out of arrows. Link snatched an arrow from the tray on the table, to which a man kept using to refill the quivers of the four archers firing hopelessly at the swarm of Dark Copies. Fusing it with some light, he launched it.

Unlike all his other shots, this didn't go out like the usual way; it went off with a bang.

He had just blindly shot into the haze of Dark Copies, for surely firing in their general direction would hopefully manage to scratch one of them at least. Apparently, these Dark Copies were very easily combustible to light arrows, and the one he managed to strike reeled with the explosion, sending the nearby one spinning out of control.

That was when everyone got a good look at what by Goddesses they were fighting. For one thing, they definitely were Dark Copies alright, since they were entirely black. For another, each of them looked pretty much Hylian, with their pointed ears, each armed with a long bow and a quiver at their backs. All of them were wearing the same standardised tunic with breeches, but what was most surprising were those apparently feathery wings sticking out of their backs.

It looks like they found a group Dark Angel.

The guard was not off his mark when he talked about their numbers. As they rushed by so fast, it looked like there were dozens of them, but in fact there were only two. These two seemed unhappy with his light arrow, and one of them chose that he was the greater threat.

Link doubted that they were in the league (power wise) of Ganon, but if light arrows only made them roll instead of go up in wisps of smoke then they were not to be taken lightly. The arrows seemed to be as deadly as the energy blades that the Dark Saria had shot, but the only difference was that they were a lot narrower, and definitely a lot faster.

With a yelp he hopped to the side, narrowly avoiding being the scorch mark that coated the floor where he was standing. Rolling under another arrow, he swiftly turned around and quickly fired another light arrow.

Since the Dark Angel had the speed to create optical copies of itself, and the manoeuvrability of flying in air, it easily dodged the arrow. The first time Link had struck it was because it was distracted with all those flying arrows and insignificant soldiers. Now, with no one else to distract it (normal arrows didn't pierce its skin, let alone make it flinch), it had easy access to Link, who was stuck on a turret, the roof being blown off already. It was by good sense that he found those soldiers, along with Malik and Reza had finally evacuated that tower.

The Dark Angel regarded him impassively. If it wasn't for the fact that these types of things were controlled mechanically with firmly imprinted instructions, Link would have thought that this thing held quite a lot of intelligence. 

That was when he saw the Dark Angel scowl suddenly, gripping its heel. Taking a good look, it seemed that Reza had thrown her different boomerang from another turret and scored a hit. Not one to waste this opportunity, he readied to fire another light arrow again.

He cursed at that underneath his breath; he had run out of arrows.

Quickly ducking another shot (which took out one of the support pillars) he scrambled around, trying to dodge those incoming bolts. He was certain that the Dark Angel was practically grinning.

"Damn it, I can't fight it like this," he muttered under his breath, managing to sidestep another shot. He knew his luck wouldn't last long enough to dodge another shot. Finally, he decided that being in the cramped turret wouldn't help him any, especially with so little places to run. Hiding underneath the table, it provided him the required shielding for a while as he latched on the hover boots. Getting ready for the next arrow to be shot, he jumped.

Malik, from another tower, stared boggled as he saw Link run on mid-air. It looked like Link had a few more tricks to pull. Unfortunately, he did not hover for long and had to land on top of the roof of the palace, where the Dark Angel (which was unaffected by his sudden display of anti gravitational skills) was charring the spots he previously was seconds ago. 

Link felt that it would waste too much time to pull out his bunny hood, and although it would give him that well needed burst of speed, it bore the risk of being fried because his attention was diverted slightly. The Fierce Deity mask would offer protection, as it was also a creation from Shadow, but he definitely did not want to use it while there were civilians around. The bloodthirsty thoughts that poured through his mind every time he donned it wasn't worth it.

"This is no good," Link growled, as Navi jingled in nervous fright, "I'm best at close quarter combat, not shooting. And now of all times I had to forget to restock my quiver." That was especially bad news now, as the Dark Angel could fire with limitless arrows.

"Hey, Link! I think I might be able to help you there." Without a word of warning, Navi glowed green and blue rapidly for a while before diving back into Link.

Link suddenly felt an odd tingling sensation, to which he realised was most likely Navi in him. Taking just a fraction of a second to see what happened, he was surprised to see the first thing he could do with this fairy enhancement was to be able to think clearer, and think faster. Also was the fact that he now was running at incredibly high speeds.

Reza was pointlessly throwing her boomerang when she saw Navi dive into Link's neck. She was amazed to see him travel at incredible speeds, dodging the continuous bolts of arrows as if they were not even magically enhanced. But it was what came next which surprised her the most.

While he was running around, trying the occasional jump to get off ground for a while, Navi spoke to him in his mind.

"I don't think now is the best time for talking, but just to let you know, the longer you spend doing this, the more you'll consume your mana. With the boost I gave you, your magic should be extremely powerful, so use it!"

Link thought that what she meant by having powerful magic was something to do with lobbing balls of fire at the Dark Angel. The idea he had in mind would have hopefully taken used a smaller mana consumption rate and have been more effective.

Running to the edge of the rooftop, he charged a small amount of mana into a spot four metres away, and jumped. Praying that his idea worked, he was relieved to feel solid ground underneath him, where it should have been air. 

The idea was to use a small bit of magic to condense the air in certain spots for him to hop on, making a pathway to reach the Dark Angel. That part of his plan was working, as it was forced to fly back slightly as he hopped bounds drawing his sword and shield as he approached. Coming up close, he infused his sword with a bit of mana and swung, successfully killing that one.

It exploded forcefully, and Link had to do a few rolls in mid air to burn away the momentum. Hopping on another solidified chunk of air, he examined his last opponent. He must have lost his element of surprise, for none of them were trained to deal with flying people, he assumed, but the last one should be taken seriously.

The other Dark Angel, who had been demolishing the turrets, chose to deal with him. It dissolved its bow and flew forward, a black claymore in its hands, doing a horizontal slice as it came close enough. Link chose to use as much surprise as he could, for that was what killed the first Dark Angel. Hopping above it, he rolled and condensed the air above him, making another leaping board and literally jumped down.

With his sword pointing for a quick thrust, he was impressed when the Dark Angel managed to block it and attempt a counter-attack. It had flown a few feet away, reformed its sword back into a bow and launched another arrow at him while he was still upside down. Link had barely made it in time, condensing the air underneath him again, raising his Mirror Shield and imparting some of his magic into it in hopes it would stay in one piece.

It had done more than that, managing to rebound the arrow back towards the Dark Angel, catching it by surprise and making it stumble.

'What the', Link thought, as he whirled in circles around the Dark Angel, 'I shouldn't have been able to do that, unless...' Link almost smacked himself on the face. While he was running around dodging the arrows earlier on, he should have noticed that when it struck, there were no arrows. The Mirror Shield would not have been able to reflect any solid object, so that meant that whatever the thing was firing was all energy.

Link smiled. That made things easier.

Link soon had to frown when Navi spoke up. "While your discovery may be important, we're running short of mana!"

The Dark Angel decided that combating Link wasn't worth it that moment, and dived straight down, plummeting through the stone encasings right into the room underneath.

Link growled. The guard had said that those things were fighting near the arcane sanctum, and that probably meant they were targeting some stuff in there. As he hopped in after that thing, he paid no heed to the frightened looking old man in the corner as he charged after the Dark Angel, who was swooping over a bunch of desks, knocking down jars of liquids as it scanned the room. 

It was going after a small scroll just when Link tackled it. He didn't think that this would work in its raw form, but tightening his grip around the Dark Angel, he tried to project the light magic that he stuffed in his arrows to it. It didn't work as he wished it to, as his hands didn't really collect all that energy, but he managed to create a tight aura of Light, which was burning away at it.

Just before it died, Navi gave him a mental warning of only being able to hold this drain for a few more seconds. Link knew far better than to kill this thing where it was – the previous one went boom when he slain it – and dissipating the aura to conserve mana, he grabbed it by the collar and threw it outside, through the hole it had made in its entry. Hopping outside to engage in it finally, he solidified the air again – but this time it was around the Dark Angel, creating an air prison that sealed the thing. Link smiled.

"Fair match," he muttered, "but I win."

He jumped, sword prepared to be swung, and as he neared the cage he removed the magic binding the air together. The final stroke pierced right through the Dark Angel, cleaving it into two. 

Navi evacuated his body already, the mana he held no longer being able to sustain both of their forms together, and that left him exposed to the explosion without any fairy induced armour. 

As he fell, unconsciousness dripping away as the scorching sensations burning at his front side, one thought echoed through his mind: 'who by Farore made those things?'

*

"That must have been a painful fight," The recognizable voice said, "though you still won, at least."

Link groaned. Whatever pulls him here every time he was in a sleeping state was starting to irritate him. "Hello, Farore."

Farore chuckled. "I suppose it is quite annoying, I guess, but you did a good job. That scroll the Dark Angel was going to steal was very vital to both sides. Your side still has it in their possession, so you can go on quite well."

Link got up and surveyed the burns he had while he still could. If those people in the palace were as considerate as he thought, when he wakes up he should see bandages instead. "What was that scroll, and what were those things?"

Farore pouted. "You're always Mr. Twenty Questions, aren't you? You never spend time in idle chat." She sighed deeply, conjured another cloud to sit on. "Well, you can read it later once you wake up. I had sensed the tampering of some Shadow oriented god in those Dark Angel, so that means that I get to give you a bit of help."

Link paused. "So... those things I had to fight were partly divine." He stated slowly, wanting to get this right.

Farore nodded. "Yeah, but that is no real trick against a nearly full divine." She stopped for a moment, regarded what she said and sighed. "Damn, I slipped again."

Link stared, an inquiry already reaching his lips. "What to do you mean, 'nearly full divine'? I'm sure that I'm no god."

Farore sighed. "Ah, the incompetence of today's youth. You carry around in you a relic that definitely is of celestial background, right? Well, combine that with two unimportant matters as well as the Goddess allowed fusion between a mystical being and a strength type and no brains warrior, take a guess." 

Link scowled at the remark, but decided to ignore it for now. "What do you mean by unimportant matters, and what's with the joining that Navi did with me?"

Farore gestured for him to come over. Hesitantly, he walked towards her, and when he was close enough, she rapped him on the head. "Well, if you could join with fairies all the time before, don't you think you would have done so? For your unneeded information, some God or Goddess had pretty much injected something into Ganondorf to make him more power hungry, much more than usual. That gave Nayru a bit of leeway in what she could and could not do, and what she did was make those Great Fairies more trusting towards you. Now, another God had gave the guy creating these Dark Copies two willing Fallen Angels to distort and imbue with more Shadow, and in my book that's a pretty big breach in the rules. So, I granted Navi the gift of fusing, like you said, as well as a few other things I'm going to store for later."

"What about the unimportant matters?"

Link wasn't sure, but Farore looked a bit uncomfortable at that. "I'll tell you later when you physically find it."

Link nodded, and shrugged. "Cool. So, angels really exist?"

Farore was glad for the change of subject, and nodded vigorously. "Sure they do, but unlike those fancy pansy snotty Gods and Goddesses, my sisters and I disguise them in Hylian, Zora, Goron, Fairy, Deku, Gerudo, and whatever other form so that no one goes out of their way to worship the ground they walk on."

Link stayed in deep thought for a moment, but was distracted by Farore, who was entertaining herself by making two clouds battle each other. "How do you do that?"

"What; keep my figure so well? Well, I do try." She said modestly, demurely staring at her feet and conveniently blushing to set the scene.

Link rolled his eyes. "No, make those clouds and stuff."

"You're no fun. Well, you simply will it. I could will you to fall into a tub of water, if I like." She proved the point by doing it.

Link was surprised when he suddenly felt the hold of gravity on him, and choked out a bit of water out of his mouth. Glaring, he closed his eyes and willed something else.

He smiled at the satisfying sound of someone other than him falling and a string of curses emitting from her mouth. Opening his eyes, he was greeted to the scene of Farore in an odd position on the ground.

"What did you do?" She said menacingly, narrowing her eyes.

"I just imagined you had no cloud, there was a ground underneath you and that gravity existed on your part as well." She grumbled, and charged at him to boot him out again. This time, he willed on some armour protection, to which she pulled her kick to avoid the pain.

Link smiled. Farore frowned. "Curse it," she muttered, but smiled soon enough, "but not that good." With that, she pulled out a large wooden mallet to send him reeling.

Propping the mallet as an arm rest, she chuckled. "Link, Link, Link. You keep getting wilder every day." Wincing and tensing to see if he was still around to exact his newly found vengeance, she glanced around nervously. "Not that it's a bad thing, I mean..."

*

Link awoken to find out that he had been asleep for six days straight, frightening the wits out of everyone, even the horses. Navi had been bawling again in his shirt, Reza flicking his nose and giving him a light scold, Malik greeting him in his customary bubbly fashion and Zelda looking extremely relieved, giving him a bone-crushing hug.

After polishing him up (tending to his wounds, getting a wash, combing his hair, cleaning his clothes and de-griming his face), the five were walking down the hallways for some banquet in Link's honour.

"You really shouldn't have pulled that stunt out of the blue, you know, most people now think you're a messenger of the Goddesses." Zelda said casually, pointing to the number of people at the gates of the palace demanding entry to see the person who fought above the palace grounds.

Link thought of whether he should tell her about his conversations with Farore, and decided against it.

"They think _Link is a messenger of the Goddesses? I find that hard to believe." Reza snorted, though she did personally find that hard to go against._

Zelda raised an eyebrow, amused. "Our royal artist was browsing through the Arcane Sanctum for some things to give him some ideas to paint, when inspiration struck, literally." She pointed to a newly raised picture that depicted Link and the Dark Angel, with the prism visible containing it with Link hovering above, his sword raised to smite the thing down (titled 'Heaven's Warrior'). Link found the thing quite accurate, but there were a few major flaws.

"That's pretty good, but I don't have silver hair, lightly coloured tattoos on my arms and glowing clothing." Link pointed out.

"Well, not now you don't, but when Navi had joint in with you, that was what you looked like, and I would grade it as one hundred percent accurate if it weren't for the stormy weather in the background with brewing clouds." Link nodded, remembering that it was a clear day when those Dark Angels attacked. He guessed that they had another veil to protect them, but since he didn't see one, he had a nagging gut feeling that the guy who created them made them immune to sunlight.

The banquet went off quite well, everyone in high spirits with nearly everyone bowing to the group as they passed. Zelda knew of Link's eating habits, and had earlier quietly but firmly imprinted into him the picture of what she will do if he embarrassed her with his eating. So, he had to eat calmly instead of voraciously, politely instead of frantically and neatly instead of ravenously. It was a difficult task, as he had been deprived of food for six days and after a heated battle as well, but he managed it.

Remembering something, he swallowed the piece of steak in his mouth before speaking up. "Oh! Does anyone remember the scroll that the Dark Angel tried to steal?" Some people became intrigued by the name and wondered about the importance of the scroll, but the man introduced as the royal artist nodded, vigorously responding.

"Oh yes, I remember it! It's some stuff in the oldest ancient Hylian dialects, I doubt that all our scribes will be able to translate even half of it, but you can keep it." He handed it over, and Link took a quick look at it.

"Why does the paper look so new?"

"Well, this one is a copy of the real scroll; the original was over four thousand years old, and is probably a handful of dust by now. The scribes could only write down the symbols, but none so far were able to translate more than two words, and even that is doubtful."

Link wasn't really listening, as he read the first line of the scroll. "_Meslia__ darei losque quist, xelos piyrem ra nasktil kost reth Mareskai xcir Verunia." Rolling it back up, he stated, "makes sense, I suppose."_

Malik stared. Reza stared. Zelda stared. Navi wasn't that surprised, but she stared too. Half the table stared, whilst the other half spent the time speculating.

Zelda looked like she was going to have a few words with him afterwards.

"Where'd you learn how to say that, boy?" The artist said in amazement; he may not have known the most about ancient Hylian, but the accent was definitely right.

Link chuckled nervously. He would have to speak with Farore later about this – this must have been one of those gifts she instilled into him. "Ah... I'm a quick learner?"

"So, what does that mean?" Reza asked, once she got her jaw working.

"For the creation of the seal beyond this world, crossing through impenetrable barriers to create the Mark of the Deity."

A/N: Well, that's this chapter done. It's a bit different than what I wanted it out at first, but it'll do nicely. Oh, and for H7, I didn't use tags for this to turn it into HTML format. If you have it, just save the Microsoft Word file as a Web page. That should do the trick. Comments, criticism and suggestions are welcome. Enjoy!


	12. Demon

Chapter 12: Demon

_You have to flee! Escape while you still can! The Plague it brings is encroaching on, and nothing is yet stopping it! Run! You must run! Soon, it shall touch pass the borders of Life and Death and no one shall be able to escape its touch! Save as many men as you need to, but RUN!_

The once image of swirling mottles of purple and black moulded itself to present a more understandable image. It showed a field. Even through the purplish tint, you could see that the grass was unhealthy; the trees were wilting and everything was slowly crumbling away. In the far distance, there was a line – no, a wall – of soldiers, all black coloured, and not all tied down to the ground. They steadily were marching forward, a blank look on each of their faces, the only drive in their life to accomplish their goal.

_They are coming from all directions, and until the Second Seal is fully complete, none stands a chance against them! The Goddesses themselves are bound against them, yet not a finger can be raised without great punishment. While you still have breath flowing through you, run! Run to the ends of the world if you need to, run until you cannot run no more, run with the greatest speed you can manage, but you must not be captured, the torture they inflict upon your spirit is greater than imaginable!_

The picture warped, showing a scene of six swords, positioned in a perfect hexagon around a young man, possibly around fifteen to seventeen, who was chanting something, though no sound came out. He soon crumpled to his knees, exhausted and weary, admitting defeat against the resilience of the six blades.

But a few words came out.

_I have made the greatest mistake, and I cannot undo any of them anymore. May the Goddesses help those who try to fight against them, and may they be granted the protection of success._

The scene warped back towards the swirling void of purple and black, the unknown voice crying out again.

_Feral.__ Despair. Fury. Sorrow. Fear. Entice. The creation of these entities dooms this world before the real threat comes. Aid Him fix it! If he too succumbs beyond help, the world is lost._

_And I fear, it would be lost forever..._

Malik jolted awake, sheen of sweat visible through the darkness to coat his body. Taking a look outside the window of his sleeping chamber, the moon was still high up in the sky. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to regain his composure, he rolled onto his side and went back to sleep, praying that it would have be less worrying.

*

Link had spent the previous days cooped up in his own room reading through the entire scroll that proved that despite its sized packed tiny font, hence loaded with a lot of words. Since it was a sunny day, Reza probably went off to take a stroll in the market to see if there were any trinkets worth buying. Malik, who was being bored out of his wits being cooped up in the palace, was studying how artistically he could graffiti the ceiling by either clinging on very tight upside down to some sort of perch or hopping up and down with a pen brush in hand.

It was to his great surprise when his door suddenly opened when he was in the middle of drawing Reza with a moustache shaking hands with Zelda with a goatee near the chandeliers.

"I didn't mean to do it! Someone else did it, I bet! There must be some artistic monkey that's travelling through the palace! 

Yeah, that's it!" Malik stopped his babbling when he saw it was Link and Reza there, all geared to get going. Reza took a long look at his hand where the brush rested, to which he quickly chucked out the window, along with the small pot of black ink he held in his other hand to paint on the ceiling. Reza rolled her eyes, to Malik's misfortune seeing the pictures he drew on the ceiling.

Just before she finished strangling him, Link walked over and pulled her away. "I kind of prefer my friends' alive, thank you very much, so ease off his neck, will you?" Reza gave a disgruntled growl. Link flashed Malik an apologetic smile before continuing. "Well, since I have no idea on what to do here, Reza suggested that we go and visit her home, the Gerudo Fortress. It should be a good experience for you."

Malik, who had been writhing on the floor previously gasping for air, jumped up, flipped around and gave a bright cheer. "Yeah! I get to see the Fortress now! Is it a neat place? I bet it is; after all, you don't stay in the Desert and not improve. I bet they're some neat creatures around and I want to see them! What are you guys waiting for – let's go!" He quickly snatched some stuff from under his bed and from the cupboards before standing directly in front of them, a big grin painted on his face.

Impa escorted them outside the palace, with Malik continuously babbling on and on. When they finally reached the doors, they saw Tylos again with four horses saddled up next to him and Epona drifting around the place a bit further away.

"I decided to become a poet." He stated, closing his eyes and inhaling dramatically.

"Why?" Reza asked.

"Just now when I was leading the horses here, I questioned myself: what do I really want to be? I implored to the heavens, and suddenly a brush fell into my hand with a pot of ink landing falling right in front of my face. If that isn't a sign, I don't know what is." He pulled out a brush that had a small bit of ink on the end to prove his point. Malik looked a bit sheepish at that.

"I thought you were on gate guard duty," Link said, "So why are you here?"

Tylos wiped his mop of brown hair aside. "Well, that was my shift then. The King wants me to accompany you guys until you all reach the edge of Hyrule field. I have no clue to why, really, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the stunt you pulled earlier." He nodded to Link, pointing to the sky for emphasis.

*

The ride was pretty boring, so to speak. After looping around a mob of religious fans who demanded to speak with the 'revelled angel', suddenly getting caught into a mob of adoration fans who, mainly female, kept staring shiny-eyed at Link, unnerving him more than any other battle he went through. After wading through that, the ride was as normal as you could get, keeping the horses moving at a light trot and waiting for those nine days of travelling to pass.

The four days they already burnt away wasn't entirely wasted, as Link, Reza and Malik showed Tylos how to survive in the outback with nearly nothing, and him in turn showing them proper weapon safekeeping, a trick he learnt from being one of the Royal Guards. Link was really expecting an attack now, for not even a Stalchid bothered to rise in their presence. 

"This is getting very boring," Reza said after a long period of silence, which everyone was enjoying the scenery of the Field. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see aside from grass, small patches of dirt, and some trees in the distance and Death Mountain far away. 

"Boring? I personally find this quite relaxing." Tylos said. Link laughed at that.

"Just live with us for a month, and you'll see how many fights we can get into within a day. You'll have to adapt to it, and a week straight of calmness sometimes is soothing, sometimes is plain boring," he explained, "but with today having less monsters attacking us than normal, you can't blame Reza for finding it boring."

Tylos nodded, and stayed silent for a while. "I never really fought a monster before. Is it hard?"

"Well, it depends on the type of monster you fight. If it's a Deku baba, you laugh at it. If it's an Iron Knuckle, you pray that it's still asleep."

Malik was curious at that. "What's an Iron Knuckle?"

It was actually Reza who replied to that. "It's some kind of temple guardian that carries around an axe and packs a real punch unless you dodge it. I had to fight one of those things a couple of times; they're not too smart, so it's just their brute strength you worry about."

Link was about to ask her why she would be sneaking in and out of the Spirit Temple, when he was cut off by Malik. "How come you never fought a monster before?" he questioned Tylos.

"We only trained against practice dummies and moving targets, nothing that would really fight back. There were the occasional spar among ourselves, but we never fought anything that flew, walked on four legs or carried around a nasty set of teeth. But oh well, you guys can tell me later, we're already at the bridge."

Waving, he rode the opposite direction, leaving the three to marvel at the fast flowing river underneath.

Malik was starting to have doubts now on going over. "Is the bridge safe?"

"Relax, I've crossed this thing over six times already and it didn't buckle under my weight. You can't possibly be any heavier than me."

"But that's one fast flowing river if we all fall into it. I don't think that it can hold all of our weight, horses and equipment together."

Link hopped off Epona and walking the edge of the bridge, gave a good kick to one of the support beams, eliciting a light curse from him. Turning around, he took a look at their confused faces. "The support is quite strong, and I see no signs of decaying on the wood. We'll be fine."

Reluctantly, Malik accompanied them over, and into the Gerudo grounds.

*

"I DID NOT ASK FOR THIS!!" Malik wailed, quietening when a Gerudo kicked the rope he was attached to. Dangling by his feet with both attached to a bungee cord, he clutched protectively a bow and a dozen arrows, with twenty Wolfos howling underneath him.

Reza smirked from the sidelines. "You agreed to the test to prove your worth, right? Well, you might not have asked for it, but you answered it." A few eight year olds crouched along the edge of the ditch, some daring enough to throw a pebble or two at the beings within the ditch (Malik or the Wolfos, you decide). Link sighed at his predicament. 

When they arrived, the Gerudo welcomed Reza warmly, acknowledged Link's presence respectfully and glared at Malik with great hostility. It appeared that they took the previous wars between Sheikah and Gerudo more seriously, and nearly everyone above seven years of age was staring spitefully at Malik. 

While Reza and Link were allowed free passage inside the Fortress, Malik was detained outside. Link offered for him to take a test so that they'll accept him, not readily he warned but he'll be allowed passage without anyone attempting to slit his neck the moment he entered. Malik jumped at the chance, readily agreeing.

Just to calm Malik's nerves, Link shouted out, "Look on the bright side; if you pass this test alive, no one here would be trying to cut your throat anymore." 

It hardly helped Malik anymore when Reza called out: "Remember, you only have until noon before they drop you inside!"

Panicking, he tried to let loose an arrow, and ended up dropping his bow and all the arrows given.

The rope was prematurely cut with Malik losing all arrows, and with a loud wail he dropped into the pack.

Link brought a hand to his forehead and sighed. "I'm going – this looks too painful to watch." 

Turning around he tried to ignore those shouts of 'let me go, you fuzz-ball', 'you hair-brained mutt, leave me alone' and especially 'give me back my trousers, you mangy dog'.

He was soon accompanied by Reza after that shout, with her muttering "I'll be blind for eternity."

* 

Link really had to stare in amazement at the insides of the Gerudo Fortress. When he was his larger self a few years ahead, even with the card the places he could go to were restricted to the mainly public domains. When he took his test, he was too much in a hurry to be amazed by the architecture and stonework of the Fortress. Now, walking around aimlessly, he approached the weaponry section with Reza in tow.

"Why do you guys keep using two scimitars?" Link asked while examining their assortment of weapons, though the variety was really limited.

"It's just like why those guards in Hyrule castle insist of using spears; three hundred years of battle has honed our skills to fight specially with scimitars."

Link could understand that: he once tried to fight with an axe, but since he was too used with a sword he found its weight unbalanced and with a long recoil time. Turning around, he saw Reza examining a special weapon that surprisingly wasn't a scimitar.

It looked like a glaive, with the only difference that there was another blade on the other side of the pole facing the opposite direction. Link could see the advantages of that weapon – you could run a faster barrage of blades, it would be much easier to take down surrounding opponents and far more lethal when fighting alone. However, he could see that if you fought with other people, you bore the risk of accidentally hurting one of your own.

"Teihra's Glaive," Reza said, a small smile on her face, "the weapon best suited for the Gerudo spin." 

"Who's Teihra?" Link asked, stroking the wooden shaft of the glaive. The weapon bore great age, but he could tell that the blades and the shaft were still in high quality form.

It was a voice behind them that replied. "She was the one that improved the Gerudo spin, and when Ganondorf was still in charge she was the leader of the elite warriors before it was me. She was also my friend." At the door of the weapon room Nabooru stood adorning a slightly nostalgic look on her face. "We have a statue of her in the middle of the Fortress; I can show bring you two to it, if you like."  

When they reached the statue, Link could tell they had placed a lot of effort into it. In a casual stance was the lady Teihra, a light smirk on her face as she gripped the double bladed glaive and a ready pose. Some people even went through the effort to find the right coloured stone to give her some colour instead of monotone grey. They even used gold for her headband and for the small collar she wore around her neck.

"How come she's wearing white, not purple?" Link asked, though he already knew the answer. 

"As one of the elite, the dress code suggests that they wear white. As the leader of the elite, she was allowed to wear her hair long as well, just like I had to grow my hair long again when I raised ranks."

"Why did she drop her position?" 

Nabooru sighed as she patted the shoulder of the statue. "Even as the best Gerudo, she was not without fault. On a raid against the Sheikah camp, she found a man who was valiantly trying to protect his injured friends and touched by his courage, spared their lives. Later when she was on patrol duty, the man came to thank her of her mercy, and soon after that he kept coming again and again. When it was found out, both of them ran away to somewhere. That was when I became the leader. For a year and a half, no one ever saw or spoke of her. Only when one of Ganondorf's experiments went awry, unleashing a large number of demons did she return, suddenly helping us fight it off until Ganondorf could reseal the entrance he made. Unfortunately, her weapon choice made it hard for anyone else to assist her, and while she managed to slay over a hundred within the span of two minutes, she was tiring and they managed to get her. That slowed their advance for a short duration, with everyone else killing any of those that escaped her blades. Because of Ganondorf's propaganda, only then did everyone realise that she didn't intend to betray any of her Sisters."

Link stared at the statue, quite at the loss of words. "Wow. What happened to the Sheikah man, then?"

Nabooru shrugged. "We don't know, but most presume that he's dead."

"It's a real shame she died." Reza said as she took a look at the stone imitation of Teihra's Glaive. "No one knows how to use her modified weapon anymore. The handwork and wristwork is very tricky if you want to be precise and flexible, and unless you want to lose a few limbs the footwork is just as complicated." Seeing Link's confused look, she elaborated. "Her modification to the Gerudo spin that everyone now uses is to now jump instead. Before, everyone kept their feet down when doing the spin so that you still had to sense of balance. Her alteration made it possible to keep your balance, double the power within it and take down more people. With her glaive, her attacks involved a lot of hopping, spinning and darting around. As both ends of the glaive are dangerous, she has to keep them as far away from her as possible but still maintain control."

If Link would have said anything, it would have been interrupted as Malik ran by, stopping only to talk to them. 

"Unimaginable! Shameful! One of those pipsqueaks stole my trousers, would you believe that?" He cried in frustration, looking around for the kid.

'Ah,' Nabooru thought, 'so that's why he's using foliage as a garment.'

"How did you lose your trousers?" Link was almost afraid of the answer.

"I had jumped when a Wolfos bit the edge of cloth near my ankles, with me unfortunately jumping out of my trousers. It threw it away, and some kid picked it up and scurried off. What an insult! Help me look for my trousers at least, will you?" Receiving no answer, he ran off, yelling at the top of his lungs about vengeance when he finds the child responsible.

Link shook his head. "With him that loud, I'm surprised he didn't catch any attention of the patrolling guards."

"I think those guards were too stunned seeing a half naked boy running around." Reza snorted.

*

A day later, it had been found that the kid that stole his trousers had been practising her washing skills on it as it was so dirty. Malik had no heart to carry out his vengeance when learning that, so left the kid unharmed. He had passed the test, though no one really respected him much as he had been quite the joke a day earlier.

Nabooru decided to become the trio's entourage for their stay, with nothing better to do. Link was rereading the scroll about the Mark of the Deity and Malik was off entertaining the little children that dubbed him as the 'funny man'.

"What a fool." Nabooru remarked as she watched his antics.

"No," Reza disagreed. Link paused his reading for a moment – since when did she stick up for him? "He may have the traits of one, but he's unemployed." Ah, that explains it.

Link stared at the scroll. Whoever wrote it must have been one crazy prophet. Through all the ranting that intervened now and then of eating scrambled eggs for breakfast and how he helped his son milk a cow, Link had gathered that the Mark of the Deity was the solid form of the Second Seal, and it should only allow people who feel certain emotions to bear it. It also spoke of needing some divine essence, and after that just talked about how to configure the Mark of the Deity to the required emotions. After that, it just rambled about the prophet needing to find some carrots for lunch and getting a cobbler to mend his shoe.

"So, what are you doing?" Nabooru inquired as she peered over his shoulder and into the scroll. Wincing at all the hard looking letters, she was quite surprised that Link could understand all that gibberish.

Link wondered whether he should tell her or not. As she was a Sage, he guessed she deserved to know, and Malik would pull any attention away from them. "It says that I should make the Mark of the Deity to fortify the Sacred Realm. It's just that I don't know what to make the Mark of the Deity into."

Nabooru mulled it over, thinking of as many possibilities as possible. "You can make this Mark of the Deity anything, correct?"

"Well, yeah, except for it can't be a living thing."

"Why not make it a weapon? If someone wants to enter the Sacred Realm, they'll have to battle Ganondorf, and while the Master Sword is the only thing that can kill him, it's not the best weapon to hurt him."

"Oh. Why didn't I think of that? I could make it one of the greatest swords to rival the Master Sword in craftsmanship." He broke out into a grin, thinking of all the possibilities he could do by making a sword. He could stuff the gem of Din's Fire inside it, and that'll fulfil the part needing some divine essence, as well as making it super powerful. A flaming sword; Link liked that idea a lot.

Nabooru smirked. "You didn't think of it because your intelligence doesn't even rival mine. But firstly, do you know how to make a sword?"

Link's demeanour dropped slightly. If he wanted too, he could go visit the palace again and learn from all the chunks of knowledge there, but that would take too long and spoils the fun. He could travel around the world learning as much as possible, but the chances are that he'll learn very little in the given time. He could become an apprentice of the best sword-smith around, but that would limit his creativity and technique. So...

"Hey, do you know of any maps that point to special sword crafting spots or any good smiths to learn from? I think I'll be going on another long trip for a while." 

"I'm not sure, really," Nabooru considered, weighing whether she should tell Link about those Gerudo secrets or not, which conflicted with national pride and aiding the Hero of Time, "but I believe that you can get some help from Darunia – I'm sure he mentioned something about forging within a lava pit or something like that."

Link nodded at that. It was a bit unfortunate, but it looked like he'll have to travel alone for a while. He only had one Goron tunic, after all, and nowadays everyone was more careful with their money that they didn't drop them into bushes for him to find, so he was a bit short in money to buy another two more sets.

As he walked over to his room, his mind in great debate as he surprisingly moved around with his eyes closed. He had roughly memorised the passageways of the Fortress, and although it wasn't perfect, it was more reliable than any other person's memory.  

It was quite startling when a few Gerudo children rushed by giggling as they chattered about Malik. Turning a corner, he saw Reza in a room writing down on something with another Gerudo sitting on the opposite facing chair, looking outside as she kicked and left her feet swinging.

"How come you don't find Malik cool? I find him really neat." The young girl said as she stared out the window, looking at the scenery below.

Reza shifted the paper she was writing on to a side as she started writing on another. "What do you find so interesting in that little wimp?"

"He does some funny stuff and he's nice with us as well as you have to be really good to do the stuff he does."

"Honestly," Reza said dully, "you have to be a really good idiot to do the stuff he does."

The girl pointed outside where Malik was doing the flips while on a flying fox with little kids cheering him on from beneath, and she cheered out triumphantly "See what I mean?"

Reza smirked as she stuck three fingers into the air, counting them off as the seconds ticked by.

Three. 

Two.

One.

**CRASH**

"See what _I _mean?" she plainly countered, pointing to the scene of Malik peeling his body off a wall of the Fortress.

The girl slouched back down into her seat, pouting at Reza. "You're no fun, sister. Why do you always pick on the funny man?"

Reza stacked the papers together, staying silent for a while. "Here's a quote for you, Sierra: 'It's best to be silent, and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt'. Clearly, your 'funny man' doesn't know of this. He's just asking for it." 

Link decided it would have been respectful to come out now. Striding into the room, he went to check into one of the cupboards.

"Sorry for eavesdropping for a moment then, but did any of you find my travelling pack?"

The young girl Sierra looked at him for a moment warily before brightening up. "Oh! You're the cleaving man, aren't you?" She piped, bouncing over to get a better look at him.

"Uh, 'cleaving man'?" He asked tentatively, giving Reza a curious stare.

"She and those Sisters that came up with the name are still young, let them have their fun." She replied.

"When you fought and won against my sister, it was said you had broke through all the fortified armour she suddenly wore, and that you seemed to be bashing right through all the restrictions against outsiders, including running off before Reza could legally fulfil the Kiss of Ma-" Sierra, who had been explaining for a while, was rudely interrupted when Reza got a strangling hold on her.

"The Kiss of what?" Link asked, but knowing he would have been better off not knowing.

"You know, the... you haven't fulfilled it, have you, sister?" A mischievous grin broke out upon the smaller girl's face, looking at her older sister in an evil manner. "Oh, isn't politics fun." She cackled slightly afterwards, sauntering out of the room soon afterwards.

 Reza grumbled about the laws of the Sisters and how they were a pain in the neck. "So, why do you need to find your pack right now? We're not due to move anytime soon."

"Well, I'm going on a private excursion for a while, and I need my bag again. What're you writing?" He attempted to sidetrack the conversation.

Reza wasn't one to drop easily to those changes, but answered his question anyway. "They're formal apologies to every Gerudo that were injured when I wore that mask of yours." For a moment, she looked slightly accusing and guilty to Link. "It's a real pain as I have to be as formal as possible in each one, and that's not my best calibre. My attitude flows in a different manner." She gestured to a pile of paper at the side of the table that had a lot of crossing outs on them. 

Link picked up one of them and read aloud: "To the High Sister of the Blue – I give my deepest apologies to the apparent havoc I have caused that day. I am most shamed by my unruly actions that were unfortunately and disgracefully out of my control. I feel that it is my responsibility to apologise for the grievous behaviour I conducted on that fateful day, and am willing to do anything within reason for recompense. I also feel I have the obligation to tell you that although it was surprising, for you, it was not entirely undeserved. You need to liven up a bit more and get around life better, as from what I have gathered from those of the Purple you shout too much. It is an insult to the Black if you keep laughing at their costumes, and I assure you many people (not just restricted to colour) find you a very itchy spot and a pain right up the-"

Reza snatched the paper back and tossed it back into her discarded pile. "Like I said, my attitude flows in a different manner."

Link frowned. "Aw, and it was just getting interesting. Can I read this one?" He went to grab another sheet when Reza pinched his wrist, holding it in place.

"No, for my dignity you cannot. But back to topic: why are you travelling alone?"

"Well, the equipment you need is very pricey, and I only have enough for one. I don't have much money on my body anymore, as I spent most of it away on provisions and repairing the stuff I already have."

"How much does it cost? I doubt it'll be that expensive, as a day's worth of food is only two rupees."

Link raised an eyebrow. "Are you willing to choke up six hundred rupees?"

Reza stared wide eyed at the price. "What are you going to buy at six hundred rupees?"

"You can buy two Goron tunics. They protect you from intense heat – I even walked through lava with it one, and didn't really feel a thing."

Reza decided it would have been in her best interests not to ask why he was wading through lava. "Where are you going that would require such protection? You most likely would have to scale a volcano from the inside." 

Link gave her a slightly sheepish smile. "Well, you're on the right lines."

Reza stared.

"Well, I'm not in any position to stop you, but you better explain to Malik soon." She said at length.

*

"Don't leave me behind!" Malik cried as he kept his death grip onto Link's left leg firm as Link tried to shake him off.

"Why do you want to go? You still have Reza here to talk to, and since you passed the test everyone accepted you." Link reasoned, wondering where a crowbar would be when needed.

"You don't understand! All those older Gerudo keep giving me evil stares, those around our age always laugh at me and the younger ones live off my torture!" Link laughed lightly at the statement. 

"Relax; if it comes to the worst, you can still rely on Reza anyway, she's not out for your blood." With a good yank, Link pulled his leg free of Malik's desperate grasp and pulling out the ocarina, played the first six notes of Epona's song and waiting for her to arrive. Ruffling Malik's hair (he was at knee level) and giving a brisk salute to Reza, he hopped onto Epona and rode off.

"Well, it looks like we're on our on again, Link," Navi said as she took her perch in between Epona's ears, "I hope you still have a lot of tales to tell."

Link laughed lightly. "Speak for yourself; I have yet to hear of a single story of yours. Why don't you tell us on what you did a year after you left us? I'm sure Epona would just be as delighted to be enlightened." Epona grunted softly in agreement.

Navi laid back and stared at the sky. For a while, she was silent, allowing the sounds of rustling grass and the clop of Epona's hooves to fill in the moment.

"Well, I guess I should start at when I headed back to the Lost Woods..."

*

The previous two weeks passed uneventfully, with again, Stalchids not popping up at night. Link, Navi and Epona were calmly enjoying the silence, welcoming those miniscule chirping noises and light scuttling that could be heard.

As they approached the bridge that crossed Zora River, Link didn't need to pull Epona to a stop. She did it herself.

Link frowned and hopping off Epona, drew his sword. He knew something was out there, and judging by the way Epona stopped herself and was tensing her leg muscles, so did she. The way Navi flittered around his head in a nervous manner told him that whatever that was hiding was a worthy adversary.

"Navi: when the thing comes out, help me target it, alright?" Waiting for her worried agreement (Link always felt that he was a bit cruel setting her so close to danger), he slowly unbuckled his shield and prepared.

"I know you're out there, so for the convenience of both of us, you better stop hiding." He commanded, burning up mana to strain his senses as far as they could go. It was rewarded, with him hearing a slight shuffle to his left and sensing the presence of another Dark Copy. Whipping around and bearing his shield in front of him, he was quite stunned by what he saw.

Ahead of him was just a single Dark Copy, but it was most likely the only Dark Copy that gave him a world of trouble. There, standing before him with a contemptuous smirk on his face as he rested his arms against the pommel of his sword, was Dark Link.

The analytical version of Link's mind quickly gathered that this Dark Link, like the other one, was a copy of his older self, and instead of using a sword and shield, was carrying around a broadsword much like the Biggoron sword. He also noted that its eyes were very aware, nearing almost a perfect copy of his own eyes with their movement and narrowing, telling him that whoever that was controlling it was very near.

'I was able to defeat it by attacking wildly last time,' he thought, surveying the area for the person controlling, 'but if the controlling person is really that near, I need as much control as possible.' Deciding on an attack, he charged forward for a simple thrust.

Dark Link quickly responded to the attack, gripping its sword properly and swinging it in a timed counterattack, meant to clip Link on his right arm. Link pulled the trick Dark Link once used on him, hopping onto the blade and trying to kick it on the face, but it managed to roll back and avoid it.

The fight silently raged on; Epona watched from a healthy distance as Navi floundered worriedly, twirling around Dark Link and Link. Link was smaller, gifting him with more manoeuvrability, as he was able to duck, roll around or hop over attacks from Dark Link. It was stronger, staggeringly so, proved when Link had dodged a strike that cleaved the tree behind him into two, so Link bore the great risk of being killed from the first hit. 

Link gritted his teeth as he was forced to deflect a vertical swing with his shield, the impact making his right hand go numb. Rolling forwards, he dodged an overhead strike and tried to use his spinning attack then. Unfortunately, it predicted that and jumped up, aiming for an aerial assault. Link gave a cruel smile as he waited for its descent, infusing mana into his equipment and projecting the image of fire into his mind.

'Fool,' he thought as he released the godly blaze. 

Dark Link, however, wasn't affected at all. As the fire encroached towards it, with a silent shriek it released its own imitation of the fire.

Link was too stunned to dodge the purplish inferno as it tore right through his, and his brain had no time to regret it as the fire scorched his skin.

Surprisingly, instead of pressing the attack while Link's defences were down, Dark Link chose to watch a few steps away, watching him writhe on the ground, shuddering occasionally. It gave off a silent laugh when a spasm of pain scoured his body. It smirked in sadistic amusement when Link gritting his teeth in pain, clutching his head in an attempt to bring the mental torture to a halt.

For Link, the purple fire that had burnt him was agonising. It was not the immediate pain that racked his body that was bad, no; it was neither the blazing remnants of the blast that kept dancing on his skin, no; it was the searing lightning that crackled and thundered within his mind, pounding mercilessly within his skull. Tears sprang within his eyes, but gritted his teeth as tightly as he could, trying not to allow even a whisper that expressed his pain to come out.

Through all his life, when struck, Link tried to keep the pain expressions to a minimum. It was a technique learnt off Mido, with Link never allowing Mido the satisfaction of knowing he was in pain by every blow given. Even through the igniting haze in his mind, he smiled slightly: it was that lesson to keep the pain inside what kept him alive and fighting after Ganon, for Ganon lived off fear, malevolence and pain, and without supplying Ganon with one of his forms of confidence, he managed to win.

Managing to summon enough energy to push the pain away, Link got up from his knees, and propping himself against his sword, searching for Dark Link. He didn't have to wait long, for to add insult to injury, it walked up to his backside and kicked him.

Link growled slightly, cursing when he saw the bottle strapped to his belt empty. His back was hurting from that kick, he had scraped his knees and they were slightly bleeding and he was definitely sure that the burn marks weren't supposed to be on his skin.

As he jumped at Dark Link, continuing the fight, Navi fluttered around, weaving in between the sword strikes and following Link, she was quite surprised when Link pulled back for a moment. She hoped he wasn't going for a light arrow strike, for while it would have hurt when it hit, the key words were 'when it hit'. It simply took too long to aim, charge and fire. She was slightly relieved when he pulled out a mask instead, but that soon became confusion.

Link knew he wouldn't be able to hit this Dark Copy anytime soon. It simply knew him too well. It had backup watching somewhere, so he couldn't pull the same trick of berserker fighting, as that'll leave plenty of gaps in his defence for the watching person to take advantage of. 'Damn it,' he thought, flipping over an attack and managing this time to boot it in the face, 'I can't hit this thing! It fought me fire against fire, and I can't do the same thing! Blasted Dark Copy! Wait... Dark... I hope this works.'

He jumped back, and giving a quick prayer to the three Goddesses above, pulled out the Fierce Deity Mask. Dark Link was clearly puzzled, and so should have the watcher. Link took that time to quickly unravel those magical seals he placed earlier, and he noticed that Dark Link stumbled backwards slightly when the seals had been fully removed.

Navi was definitely alarmed when Link grew in size when he placed the mask onto his face. She was more alarmed when she noticed that the double-helix sword threw a blade of dark energy, very much similar to the one Dark Saria had thrown, at Dark Link, effectively knocking him down. She had every reason to be worried when she saw the malicious expression creep across his tattooed face. Link was now radiating Shadow magic like crazy, and she could see that this... Link was winning easily.

The unbridled surge of energy that Link felt had to be burnt off. Discharging most of it in an energy blade, he was most pleased when it reached the desired effects. What had made the malevolent expression on his face was not the fact that he could now hurt the thing badly, but he could almost feel the waves that was being fed to Dark Link.

Signal waves.

Charging closer, he swung mightily, the block Dark Link attempted easily brushed off as the sword reached its target. Link's replenishing Shadow aura was disturbing those signals, so he was now fighting a failing puppet.

It was too easy.

In a rapid four stroke attack, Link greedily absorbed the passing Shadow energies that were released at Dark Link's departure. His bloodlust in this form was incredible, as was his thirst for power. Turning around, he needed a new target, to burn the loading amount of energy and to satisfy his newly hunger for a fight.

He was not to be disappointed.

Focussing on where those faltering signal waves were coming from, Link managed to see the vague outline of a person using a highly evolved invisibility spell. Fierce Link smirked; invisible didn't mean invincible. To Navi and Epona, it looked like he threw another energy blade to a far off boulder. To Link, he could see that the person had dodged aside (surprisingly well, his mind noted) and gave up all pretence of not being there.

Light clapping wasn't what Navi had expected so suddenly. Focussing to where the sound came from, she saw a red-haired man standing there casually. He looked like a normal Hylian, except for he was by a large amount taller, had red hair, was wearing some weird robes with a narrow, slightly arced sword in a sheath at his waist, and had startling crimson scar marks on each of his cheeks that started from his jaw and round underneath his eyes, and a diamond shaped mark on his forehead.

"Impressive, I have to say," the figure said, bowing lightly to Link, "perhaps you would consider a duel against some greater adversary? I could send a stronger minion of course, but it'll be far more entertaining to see your blood against my own katana." The man crouched into a ready position, drawing his sword.

"Who're you?" Link asked gruffly, readying himself nonetheless.

The man smirked. "My name is of unimportance to you. But I can tell you that I am the thirteenth warrior of the fourth division. My status means little now, but I am a solder of the vast demon army."

Link snorted at that. "Demon army or no, you're suicidal to fight me."

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Now, let us engage in battle."

A/N: Sorry for the long update, was changing my battle scene a couple of times (still not good enough). I decided to post it in the end. Tell me where you think it could be improved, and later I'll modify this chapter.

'It's better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt' That's from Mark Twain (funny man), just for you to know. I would be sorely tempted to say it was my invention, but in fear others out there know this quote, I believe it would have been prudent for me to tell you all of its real origination.

The next chapter should be coming up soon, and you can expect a bit of heavy fighting there. Adios! 


	13. Dodongo Cavern

Chapter 13: Dodongo Cavern 

Reza absentmindedly tapped the feathery end of the quill against her temple, thinking of how she was to send these 'forgive me' letters to those they were addressed to. As law dictates, from such a serious matter, it should be presented in the most serious way. She couldn't just dump it in her lap and tell them to meet her in her room if they wanted to point out any spelling errors, no. Getting Sierra to do it might work, if only she had something to bribe her to do it right...

"Jeez, don't you guys remove the edge on your training weapons?"

Reza was shaken out of her reverie, and looking outside her window, she could see it was Malik who said that, presently occupied on dodging the deadly arcs on the scimitars that Sierra was swinging wildly.

Propping her head on her palm, she resumed twiddling with her quill and just wondering how she was going to get this done. Staring despairingly at the pile of apology notes that overwhelmed her table and littered the floor, she was almost certain that Link was having a better time.

*

Link found this new opponent a very formidable challenge. As this demon used that sword (he believed it was called a katana), it appeared that the demon could make it move at great speeds, making it impossible for Link to hit him without being blocked. However, the force behind each blows were staggering, and trenches made from the demon's footing were visible.

He hopped backwards, getting some space in between him and this overpowered mortal. "Remarkable," he breathed, exhaustion apparent by the beads of sweat lining his face, "clearly your strength surpasses mine. It is quite the boon adorning a godly mask, is it not? You can draw upon all the powers of this land to feed your might; you can call upon all the spirits of this country to pray for your victory." 

The demon had no time to continue his speech as Link rushed back in. The double helix broadsword that Link was swinging around was humming with Shadow, and with each strike against the opponent's katana, it was obvious that it was slowly melting.

Link smirked. 'A piece of cake,' he thought, bashing aside a pointless counterattack from the demon, 'I should finish this in no time.'

*

Sierra was having the time of her life. Her sister Reza refused to spar with her, and the last time she tried a sneak attack Reza instinctively chopped her scimitars into two. That was when she was on laundry duty, so Sierra feared what she would have done when her mind wasn't occupied. The other Sisters her age were too slow. Some were stronger, some were smarter, but none were faster. Because of that, she could dodge almost any attack thrown and run around any plan formed, rendering whatever brawn and brain they held useless.

Now here, Malik wasn't slow himself. She doubted he could sprint faster than her in a race, but in battle he was doing fine. With all the hops, twirls, rolls and flips, she could tell he knew how to use the given space well. After she had nearly lobbed off his foot, he decided to stay as long as possible off the ground, and achieved that by hopping on the walls, taking perch on the smallest of cracks and doing hand flips on beams, logs and whatever was beneath him.

Now, only if she could hit him now...

For their spar, both had chosen their favourite weapons. Sierra chose the custom Gerudo dual scimitars, and Malik used his standard long knife (thirty centimetre narrow blade, high on the 'ouch scale' if you're poked by it, but relatively harmless if someone tries to swipe at you instead) and three throwing knives, attached to the bandoleer he chose to wear. 

Malik's choice of weapon made it so that he'd have to be brave to confront Sierra, with her longer ranged weapons. He didn't dare throw one of his knives, for to end the spar was to point your weapon at the opponent's throat, and a knife would just outright kill her instead. Sierra couldn't get to Malik, as she couldn't hop around like he did, and his flight path was too erratic to figure out where he'll step next, so it looked like they were in a form of a stalemate.

*

That stalemate didn't exist for Link. As Navi watched, she could see Fierce Link gain ground with each blow, and while he seemed indifferent about the futile comebacks the demon kept trying, he was however feeling the full effects of Fierce Link's offence. As Navi floated around Epona's crown, she watched as the katana that the demon wielded snapped.

Oddly enough, he smiled instead of frowned.

"Excellent match, I dare say that you know much on how to manipulate the power that the mask you wear grants. Now, let me test how well you know it." Bowing, he leisurely pulled out a pendant with a black gem. 

"What is a trinket supposed to do?" Fierce Link said, narrowing his eyes as he saw the odd form of magic weave around the gem.

"You see it, I presume? This is outstanding, for few are gifted the sight of magic. Then again, it may be due to your mask." 

"Quit your forestalling and tell me what it does." Fierce Link growled. Navi could see that he was getting irritated fast.

The demon sighed, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "Ah," he said, twirling the pendant's chain around his finger, "the impatience of the newer generations, always rushing to get things done. I believe it would be better if I showed you."

He first muttered something before placing it around his neck. Looking at Navi's analysing eyes, Epona's distrustful ones and Link's annoyed ones, he smirked slightly. Raising a hand, he marvelled the way everyone tensed at that motion, as if they expected him to summon a chain of lightning to smite them. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you see it), he simply clicked his fingers instead.

Suddenly, Navi felt incredible agony as she; Fierce Link and Epona were sent flying.

It took her a second to recollect her breath, but even then it was slow by fey standards. Looking upon what had happened; she could see scorched ground surrounding the demon, whose pendant was emanating light rapidly. With her magic vision, however, she could see it was a lot worse.

Magic lines always flow through earth, the sky and water, and everything needed a small amount of supplement from the magic given off. What was most worrying was that surrounding the demon was a perfect sphere of no magic. The magic lines that flowed by could be seen as chopped or thrown of course. The vacuum of magic cause everything surrounding him to wilt, and Navi was glad that all three of them were thrown out instead.

The demon laughed.

"You draw upon unbridled power from your grounds. This pendant creates a radius where the magic from _your_ grounds doesn't exist. Within this area, no magic of yours would work."

Fierce Link growled, and charged in. However, he was soon pulled to the ground, and choking, he crept back out.

The demon raised an eyebrow. "I always wondered how heavy all that armour and particularly that sword is. Without the enchantments dispelled each time you get in, I imagine that it is too heavy for you?"

"Curse you," Link snarled, throwing in an energy blade, which dissipated.

The demon shook his head, laughing at Link's plight. "You know little on the theory of diffusion, don't you? Normally, that blade would have flown true, as outer magic fills the area already. In this spot, it is like water in a very wide basin, spreading out until it is too little in one spot to be of any use. But this basin," he swung his arm to encompass the area, "has a leak, and all that water would drain out into nothingness. Your fairy companion is too reliant on magic, and she would suffocate to death with all the magic being leached out of her and nothing to give it back."

Fierce Link growled, his glare doing little to the demon. "How would you survive there then? If what you say is true, you should be dead."

"I am a demon," he coolly replied, drawing out a hidden katana that was strapped to his back, "I do not need _your world's_ magic. This pendant creates a tiny hole where all your magic is drawn through, and my world's magic refills it." 

"What is your world, if it is not Hyrule?"

The demon laughed again. "Do you not know, but Hyrule is a country, not a world. As for mine, I believe you call it Hell."

*

Reza walked briskly among the corridors of the Fortress, a sack full of sealed envelopes with nicely folded apology letters inside lugged around, strapped to her shoulder. She had spent over half an hour debating how she would have presented all those notes, and chose to put them in fancy little envelopes with their names stylishly written on the back.

"Alright," she panted, dropping the sack with an audible plop and dropping on the floor, resting for a moment against the cold stone walls, "seven people down, one hundred and thirty nine more."  Glumly she got back to her feet and picked the sack up again, randomly picking a card and seeing who it was addressed to. "Great," she muttered quietly, "this person's three floors down."

*

Link had given up on wearing the Fierce Deity mask, for the weight of all that equipment was too much to bear, even if his altered body was stronger. Reverting back, he wasn't much faster, to be honest, but at least in that warp of his worlds magic, and he could still fight somewhat decently. It was most annoying that he kept getting out of breath so easily.

Link knew that as he couldn't press the offensive anymore, the demon's speed would be overwhelming now. Luckily, he managed to get enough distance in between the demon to put on the bunny hood.

"Link!" Navi called, bobbing desperately around Epona, "this guy is very arrogant! Find a way to exploit that weakness!"

Presently Link was trying to get close without getting into the area that leeched magic. He wasn't too sure how long magic would last inside, but when he shot an ice arrow inside, it had weakened into a standard arrow at less than half a second, and it was almost painful watching the flimsy design sword (consider that you have to hide it, it would most likely have snapped after cutting a log) that the demon used to knock aside the ordinary projectile.

"Arrogant, eh? Quite right you are, and I have every reason to be." He proved his point in the quickest way possible.

When Link had stopped to see what he would pull out this time, he was quite surprised that it was an ordinary water container. Nevertheless, it could have contained anything, and he had to pay careful attention to what was happening. With infuriating calmness, the demon poured out a bluish substance over his sword, and with a quick flick, his sword caught on fire.

"I'm sure you've heard of methane, gasoline and highly flammable liquids." He stated, giving the sword a twirl to make the fire dance in a circle. "No? Well, considering the exploitations of this country science wise, I'm not surprised. The liquid I poured over my sword is a combination of copper sulphate, iron, lithium, sodium chloride, magnesium and essentially carbon, the occasional strand of carbon hydroxide. Don't worry about the ingredients; all you need to know is that is hurts."

Link frowned deeply. The green fire that was being emanated looked eerily lethal, especially with the way the sword was slowly glowing red beneath all the flames.

Link had a very good reason to worry, wondering how the liquid managed to burn for so long and stay on the sword.

*

"You're a corrupted pig, you know that?" Reza complained, with Sierra walking next to her, a bunch of letters bundled within her hands.

"Corrupted pig or monk of virtue, you now owes me forty rupees." She said nonchalantly, checking the name on one of the letters and depositing it at a nearby doorstep. Reza was grateful for the help, but the pricing her sister put on such a simple task was costly at best.

Reza rolled her eyes, silently grumbling about her sister's economic and politic ways of thinking. "What would happen if I choose not to pay you in the end?" She said in a mock threatening voice.

Sierra shrugged. "If you don't, I'll sell all your undergarments to those passing merchants outside. That should get me triple the amount of money you're going to be paying me, maybe more if I tell them you wore them. Or maybe I could get Link to lend me that weird camera, and then I could enter the trade of modelling, you being my model, of course."

Reza pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. "Like I said, you're a corrupted pig."

"Hey, all's fair in business and trade, and whatever they call unfair is still fair in my book." She chuckled lightly, casually flicking a letter to another doorstep.

*

Link was grateful for having the Bunny hood, for the heat given by that sword alone was draining him from energy. How the demon seemed to not be sweating by holding the sword, he had no idea, but he definitely wasn't going to try and get close to find out. Fortunately, like Navi said, the demon was far too arrogant for its own good, deciding to play around with Link instead of killing him when the chances were given.

Right now, Link was clinging onto a desperate gamble. If it worked, he'll figure out ways to slay this monstrosity, if it didn't, well, he'll have to deal with a riled up angry pyromaniac.

Running away from the demon, he cringed slightly, watching the plants wilt as the demon gave chase. Hopefully, his idea would work properly.

Navi, who had been watching from afar, was surprised to see Link quickly turn around, with the demon still charging full speed at him. It was peculiar that instead of drawing his sword and shield like he usually did, he brought his hands together and made a cupping shape, and with a small amount of effort released Din's Fire, except for in a projectile form instead.

The effort applied to reformat Din's Fire's shape was strenuous on Link, as within a span of a second he had to change it from a radius effect spell into a compact and highly focussed ball. With a great cry of effort, he launched the ball at the demon.

And he was going to run right into it.

The crash wasn't anything tremendous, for the magic was being leeched right out of the fireball, but it managed to connect with the demon, which unfortunately blocked it with his fiery sword. Oddly enough, a grin broke onto Link's face.

"So, costlier magic lasts longer in that vacuum, eh?" He muttered to himself, resuming getting the demon to follow him. Unfortunately, the demon was seeing something within his plan.

"Very interesting," he muttered, examining Link's calculated retreating back, "you are attempting to pull me into a trap, but I do not know what." Suddenly, he broke out into a grin. "Let it come, then, let it come."

*

"I still can't believe that I lost to Malik!" Sierra whined to Reza as they continued to give back letters. "I mean, with those puny knives of his, he could never had hurt me! With my six years of training, I can't believe that he managed to beat me!" 

Reza rolled her eyes. "You do know that while you're only eleven, he's around fourteen or so? I had an extra three years with his weapons that you had with yours."

"So? The dual scimitars are my most proficient weapon."

"Likewise, his knives are his best as well. Now, moving aside from the fact that you lost your first battle within two years, how did you lose it?"

"You mean how he won it," Sierra grouched. Reza merely waved her hand in indifference.

"Well, I noticed he was hopping around in a different pattern, a slightly more predictable one. Naturally, of course, I chose to exploit that pattern, and the weakest moment was when he would jump off the roped pile of logs by a handspring, so when I scaled it and faced him, I was surprised by the fact that while he was still going face first, he threw a knife at the rope tying all the logs together, and with my support gone, I fell." She sighed at that, glancing through a window, seeing Malik struggling to place a log on top of the pile with two Gerudo shouting at him. "With my balance gone, I dropped my scimitars to catch myself in case I fell too hard, and had a knife at the throat."

Reza, quiet for a moment, thought for a while with her eyes closed. "Unpredictability lies within prediction. A battle isn't just on courage, but as well on strategy. A war isn't entirely a show of force, but a manipulation of illusions." She quoted, playing as the wise sage.

Sierra blew a puff into her bangs, dropping down to take a quick breather. Reza followed suite soon afterwards. "Whatever great saying that was, you still owe me forty rupees."

"Curses, I was hoping you'd forget that."

*

Link was running as hard as he could go. The demon had pulled out a weird stunt by setting his shoes on fire, and the scorch marks on the ground weren't made by his steps because of the fire – oddly enough, the fire didn't even touch it at all – but rather the great heat created from the friction of running at incredible speeds. Link's plan involved running in a straight line, but he had to ditch that for going zigzag instead.

"You can run, but you will never run fast enough!" The demon laughed, and Link managed to feel the fire from his' sword, telling him that he was gaining ground very fast. Guessing that this would have been as good a time as any, Link employed the first part of his plan.

Turning around, he forced his aching leg muscles to charge right into the vacuum radius, and right before he entered, he shouted, "Nayru's Love!"

Navi from the distance relaxed visibly when she saw that. The reason he shot Din's Fire inside was to see how long magic would last inside that vacuum, and getting the demon to run into him would shorten the amount of time he'll have to keep the Goddess enchanted spells active. From her distance, she could see that the demon threw a four-stroke combo (a diagonal slash from down to up to severe right hip joint, a downward stroke for the left shoulder, a flick of the wrist and twist to strike upwards again before a lethal horizontal slash) at Link, but was definitely surprised when it bounced off a weakening shield, and just the moment after it disappeared, Link returned the same combination back before hopping out of the radius before it could drain mana off him directly.

"Impressive spell you used just then," the demon admitted, choking out a bit of blood and gripping his shoulder tightly, releasing his grip to see blood on his hands, "but now that I saw it already, your fireball and shield won't work against me anymore." He sighed, eyeing a bottle of red potion he stored in a waist pouch, "it is a shame that your potions are my poison, really. It's a suicide drug, in prevention for failure. However, as long as I can help it, failure will never come."

"What is it that your superiors consider failure?" Link couldn't help but ask.

The demon grew very sombre, somewhat bitter. "It's you managing to live."

With that, he poured the odd chemical over his sword again as well as his shoes (which had extinguished themselves when he wasn't running for a while), wincing at the pain in his abdomen and thigh, before charging at Link again, a somewhat desperate look in his eyes, much unlike the calm and imperious one just before.

*

"...Twenty, twenty five, thirty, thirty five, and forty. There's your money, now go away for now." Reza said, plopping heavily against her bed, breathing deeply for a moment. How mailmen seemed to get their job done, carrying around over two hundred envelopes plus the letters sealed inside didn't seem to be able to get into her mind. 'I must be weakening from the lack of practice,' she mused to herself, 'I should train harder from tomorrow.'

"Your room has better ambience than mine, so I'm staying here." Sierra said casually, strolling around the room.

It was a moment before Reza spoke. "No looting, and get away from my clothing cabinet." A muffled string of curses was all she needed to hear to guess what Sierra was trying to do. 

*

It was rather weird, but now that the demon was in his frenzied state, his charges were coming much faster despite the debilitating wound on his leg and was managing to run fast enough to get Link within the radius of the vacuum, and the wind pressure alone from his sword strikes were sending Link reeling already. Right now, Link was running for all it was worth, hopping onto trees and ducking beneath bushes, all to dodge the attacks from the demon. Right now, he was running very short of places to hide, with the trees being incinerated by the fire and the ground scorched flat by the hurried steps that pounded on it. It was time to pull his final trick.

Praying to Farore, he released the warp point.

Link was curious this time, and chose to run backwards – after all, all the trees had been razed down, and he wanted to see what would happen. When the magical vacuum crossed over it, he was amazed to see that it was showing resistance to the vacuum, and had he looked at his palm, would have seen the Triforce of Courage glowing slightly.

The demon rushed passes the warp point. His back was towards the warp.

"Farore's Wind!" Link cried out, his body disappearing from his previous spot and reappearing behind the demon. Unfortunately for the demon, it had stopped seeing its prey vanish, only to be alerted when he felt a sword cleave through his unprotected back. Turning around, he managed to see Link swing, cracking the gem on the pendant, removing the magical vacuum. Link kicked the demon in the chest before hopping back.

The demon fell to a knee, coughing up blood as it felt the effects of ruptured arteries. His body quivered with agonising pain, torturous by the second. It managed to speak after a while. "Admirable, truly admirable," he wheezed, looking up at Link, a weary look in his eyes, "you truly deserve the name of the Hero of Time, and the prophesized title of the Shadow General."

"What is your name?" Link asked, feeling that the demon would be obliged to tell him now at least. He'll ask for the prophecy later.

"My name is similar to those of my group. But, if you wish to know, I had been granted the name of Shikaku." He choked, crumbling finally to the strain of all his wounds and laying weakly on the ground.

Link felt sympathetic at the sight, for even if it was the enemy, he did not like to see prolonged pain. "You will not die by my sword today. It is your choice to take the potion or not, and perhaps you might live." With that said, he hopped onto Epona, and rode off with a dubious Navi trailing along.

When he reached the inn at Kakariko village, he unceremoniously dropped off to sleep.

*

"Wake up kiddo; we got to chat for a while." Link felt himself being rolled over, and when he persisted in keeping his eyes closed felt someone splash him with water.

"What is it, Farore?" He groaned, wishing that his muscles would at least not ache in this realm. The fight had been very strenuous, with all the running he had done.

"It's about that demon person, the one with the fire sword." Farore explained, conjuring a cloud to sit on.

Link immediately snapped to attention at that. Creating his own chair, he settled down. "So, what God does that guy worship?" Link figured that the question would be easily answered, with Farore being a Goddess.

Oddly enough, she grimaced instead. "Quite frankly, I have no clue who he worships and what animal they mangle as a sacrifice. Personally, I believe anything that can remotely smile is used on the spot, whether on top of a summit with lightning brewing in the background or in a toilet cubicle, with the flushing and really worrying quotes said. But that's beside the point."

From chats with Farore, Link found out ways to filter out the unneeded banter and focus on the point. "How come you don't know?"

"The demon told you it came from Hell, and people from Hell are totally different from the people here. Likewise, there are different Gods and Goddesses down there, and the communications in between both worlds are near to zilch. I guess one or two Gods can talk with one or two over there, but that's about it."

Link paused for a moment, contemplating what had been said. "I don't get what you mean."

Farore sighed, muttering about incompetence. "Fine, picture a bees' nest. Every country in existence is one of the honey sacs stored in there, and every deity is one of the bees, maintaining the honey sacs, removing some and replacing them again. Those bees can communicate with each other, and that's how I can talk with those other Gods. Now picture another nest, halfway across the world. They have their own countries and Gods, but we can't reach them, for the distance is simply too far, so it is rare that we ever interact."

"Ok, so what's in between both worlds?"

"Well, it's very complicated, so I'll simple it down to the basics. In between this world and that world are simply unused resources and sheer nothingness. You, attached to the honey sac as it is, can't cross over the nothingness, but a bee, a person of divinity, can – to an extent. You can't gather those resources either, being a tiny speck created by us, but we can, provided we can find it."

Link sighed. "Alright; so we have no idea what that demon is, and can't do much about it."

Farore laughed lightly. "Now that's where you are wrong. I'm not sure how the demon did it, probably a form of great space displacement and the inversion of space-time relationship, but once it reached Hyrule, Nayru managed to pluck some information about it."

Link was lost slightly there at all that jargon. Hopefully, it wasn't a main point. "So, what did you find out?"

Farore raised her hand and started counting her fingers off. "Well, most of it is trivial, like he has a blood type VQ and has seventy nine pairs of chromosomes. Other stuff is only important if you know it personally, like he likes wearing blue and white, has a fancy for salty food and enjoys reading classical books. The things that we managed to find out – that's important this time, so get that expression off your face – is it's fighting style and chunks of its memories."

Link nodded, gesturing for her to continue. He was confused when she didn't.

"Well, aren't you going to go in a bit deeper?" Link asked.

Farore shook her head. "The fighting style isn't anything particularly special – just think of using a sword that's built for cutting, and is lighter as well as without a shield, then you got the basic idea, aside from that you have to change your stance, amount of force applied and stuff. The memories are all scrambled right now, so I'll brief you about them later."

Link nodded, accepting that information. Farore had no reason to lie about that. "So, how much time do you have left to talk?"

She laughed at that, chuckling at some hidden joke. "I believe the appropriate question is how much time do _you _have left to talk. I still have around seven million years worth of life in my body; I'm not in any hurry right now. And yes, Gods _can _die, but it's usually takes around the lifespan of the rise and falls of eight dozen countries altogether, and believe me, countries don't fall in a rush."

"Speaking of countries, how come you're limited to only Hyrule?"

"Our knowledge is limited to Hyrule, and it's downright rude looming my nose into another God's realm just to see what's going on. So long as there are believers that believe in us, our powers will follow them and be granted to whomever that joins in that religion. Such is the power of faith. Of course, if you go to another country, I'll be granted permission to watch that country, as you're in it, but the Gods and Goddesses of that country are allowed to watch you. That's how we gathered information on the demon – he was trespassing, so we were allowed to see what he knew. Do you have any other questions?"

Link shook his head, silent for a moment. "Oh! I got a question!"

Farore nodded, giving him the go-ahead for the question.

Link smiled, as he created a board with square tiles all over it, a table, two chairs and two wooden pots, one filled with white pebbles and the other with black. "Do you care for a game of Go?"

*

In the Gerudo Fortress, there were a lot of empty rooms. Due to a previous disease outbreak, the people that would have lived in those rooms had sadly died, but fortunately the Gerudo population was slowly fixing itself. Most of those rooms were left alone, awaiting a new user, and a few used a store room until the room is needed. One room in particular, was a store room, but it was owned a certain money-hungry Gerudo.

There was a single room where Sierra stashed everything she owned.

The door was made from one of the finest wood you could ever find, the base of the door coated with stainless steel and having titanium bolts and hinges. If you actually managed to get pass the nine digit code lock and safely removed the barbed wire traps, you'll find that the splendour inside the room wasn't as magnificent as what it appeared on the outside.

Sierra waltzed in, two years worth of experience letting her diffuse the traps quickly and rolled the numbers around until the lock clicked open. Entering, she picked up a stray map of Hyrule and posted it back onto the wall and hopping over a treasure chest, and opening a drawer, she dropped her hard earned forty rupees inside. Looking around, everything was in place – the maps for Hyrule, the treasure chest full of odd trinkets, her cupboard full of stolen bracelets and necklaces, her table with geometric design etched onto it with stacks of sword fighting scrolls littered all over. There was a single scroll that was worth of more value than everything else in the room combined, a scroll that both she and Reza held dearly. 

Their father was an ordinary smith, though he was extremely talented. When he married into the Gerudo family, along with their mother (who used to repair damaged weapons), together they created a way of making steel hard enough to penetrate armour, but still soft enough to be flexible.

Sierra smiled. Within that scroll held more than just forging techniques, it also told of the way to fight with the created sword.

Yes, it was definitely worth more than everything else combined.

*

"You know, after my fight with the demon, I think I learnt that I need to move much faster. I've never really trained much before, but never has anyone specified me and only me to hurtle beasts and creatures at." Link stated as he placed his black stone down, surrounding Farore's seven white stones and taking them away. "You're not really good at this game, are you?"

Farore growled, glaring at Link while staring menacingly at the board. "Just you wait, Link. I might have lost six times already, but seven is a lucky number, and I'm sure I'll win this time. To your first question, yeah, I guess you might want to become faster and maybe stronger if you can help it. I know that your eye reflexes are ranged around the speed you can move, so the faster you can run, the quicker your eyes are. Maybe get a bit more weight on you, put a bit more power in your blows." After analysing the board deeply, she placed a stone down, taking away three of his pieces. "Ha!"

Link closed his eyes in deep thought. "I suppose so, but I'll have to find a way to build up my mana reserves as well. If there are more people that can drain magic off me, I need to make sure there'll be some left for me to use." Not even bothering to acknowledge her small victory, he placed his stone down and removed all her stones except for two.

Farore sighed. "I can't believe I didn't see it."

"Yes, I can't believe it either, considering that's how you lost all six times before."

Farore grumbled slightly to herself, Link suppressing the urge to smirk. "Well, I'm not good at board games. For you mana reserve idea, maybe you could train up in Death Mountain without the Goron tunic, using your magic to protect you. The slight strain should help build up your mana reserves as well. Oh well, you've spent over nine hours unconscious, I think you might want to wake up now." Farore was about to boot him, but remembering what he learnt the last time he was in here, chose to go for snapping her fingers.

Chuckling at Link's startled expression before he left; she turned around and examined the table he fabricated.

"Now, how did he win that round again?"

*

After paying for his staying fee and helping Anju collect her rampant cuccos, Link proceeded up Death Mountain. The occasional Tektite that chose to appear was easily dispatched, but it was only after removing the third one did Link notice a problem.

"Damn, I'll have to find a smith to fix this." Link grumbled as he nudged his sword up and down, examining the body of the blade.

"Why? What's wrong?" Navi said, hovering lower and gliding along the shaft, examining the sheen of the blade from the reflected sunlight. The intricate patterns etched on the side didn't look like they were damaged (and she doubted that Link would care about that anyway), the tip was still as pointy as ever and the edge still looked like it could nicely cleave a tree.

"The upper half of the blade is getting blunt, with that part being used more. Since I like to swing in one particular direction, only half the blade has been tempered for fighting and slightly modified its shape, but the other half just stays there and is more of a waste of space than anything. There is a small crack and the base, and if that deepens and gets longer, the entirely blade is going to fall off. Also, the hilt is weathering away, and I need to bandage it again." Link explained, pointing out to the parts he was speaking on.

Navi shook her head, deciding that Link will find a way to fix it and it was way above her head. Monster weak points and advice was her piece of cake – weaponry craft and maintenance was not.

As they climbed the remaining steps all the way to Goron City, Link had to marvel at the great cliff falls and hidden cracks throughout the passage. He believed that all of them were natural, with flaming rocks being hurtled at the passage every now and then, but was starting to think that the less obvious and less harmful ones were created by the Goron. After all, with Darunia as a Sage, his people must have raised the level of protection as well.

"I wish someone would make a custom fairy-sized Goron tunic," Navi grumbled as she perched herself on Link's shoulder, "I'm sweating now as it is, even if we're not yet inside the Crater." Link nodded in agreement and squinted at the view of Death Mountain Peak. It looked calm today, but the sudden eruptions he experienced before didn't look like they'll stop now.

Link stepped onto a rock, choosing to get a higher view to see the volcanic activities of Death Mountain. It may look safe now, but when he has to get in the hard way...

"Uh, Link? I think you might want to step down now," Navi said quietly, pointing to the rock he was standing on.

"Why?"

"That is a Goron, not a rock." Hastily, Link hopped off; staring as they rock got up and yawned, scratching its back and slowly shifting its weight to get a good look at Link.

"Ah, what a nice nap I had. I wonder where that back massage came from just now," it yawned rubbing its eyes blearily while focussing them on Link.

Link's eyebrow twitched slightly. 'Back massage...?' "I'm sorry for stepping on you just now; I just find it hard to identify a Goron from a rock, especially since I haven't been here for a while."

 The Goron waved his hand offhandedly, dismissing the apology. "No need to worry about it, Soft thing. If you came up here, it was to see the Great Fairy, or Big Brother Darunia, right?"

Link's eyebrow twitched again. 'Soft thing...?' "Well, yes, I came to see Darunia. He might be able to help me on a certain problem of mine."

He nodded, gesturing for Link to follow him. "Big Brother is wise, and many come to him for help. Right now though, he's having a few problems of his own. He says that we need to harvest deeper into Dodongo Cavern if we want more food. The problem is no one has a map of anything that far."

Link frowned slightly. The food supply was shortening? That couldn't be good. How did they get food properly when Ganondorf was in rule, four years later then? Maybe they managed out of sheer desperation. Link knew how powerful the will to survive was, and where it would get you if you needed to get there. 

Link mused at that thought. Sometimes, he managed to defeat a boss of a temple just because he did not want to die yet. On his last, trembling legs, he would pull himself together and keep on fighting, despite whatever injuries sustained before. And in the end, he would crumble back onto his knees, panting for breath, muscles strained beyond safety, but very much alive. He would be alive and victorious.

"Death Mountain doesn't look so good today," Navi said as she squinted at the scenery before them. For some strange reason, the magma chasms that frothed inside seemed to be more violent than usual, and they could see the occasional puff of poison laced smoke erupting from the mouth, a dribble of lava flowing out before cooling down and solidifying. The rocks ejected twirled in the air as the pressure and heat from before hurled it out forcefully. Link had to jump sideways a bit to avoid a tumbling stone. The Goron seemed unaffected, though it did sigh at that.

"Mountain is all unbalanced today. Big Brother worries about that too. Some of my friends say that Volvagia is awakening. I don't want to believe that." The Goron sighed again as he lumbered forward. Link frowned slightly at that. Volvagia, was he awakening? That did not sound good, for Ganondorf was sealed and therefore could not awaken it himself, but then again, he was away for seven years, and maybe Volvagia awakened naturally at some point.

Link decided he'll ask Darunia about that...

Link just remembered something then. If Volvagia had awakened, Link was still too small to wield the Megaton hammer! The chances of it being docile seemed very slim too. Damn...

Link was snapped out of his contemplation when the Goron alerted him of reaching the entrance of Goron City. Thanking the Goron (who returned to his previous position – on duty and asleep), he entered, seeing the City as bustling as he left it previously. At least some things stayed the same...

*

Malik was staring at Reza as she ran around an oval track, panting from exhaustion. That would have been a normal occurrence if it wasn't for that he was in front of her, running backwards. Reza only did three rounds (the equivalent to 1500 metres), but was exhausted.

The exhaustion could be derived from her lack of strength.

The exhaustion could also be derived from her wearing a weighted coat, weighted bracelets and tampered shoes. All in all she was running with fifteen kilograms worth of weight, excluding her normal gear and two swords.

 "You don't look too good. Why don't you take a rest?" Malik commented, taking the towel off his shoulders and using it to wipe the sweat on Reza's face. 

"Thanks for stating the obvious." She growled, snatching the towel to do it herself before tossing it back to him. Malik, undaunted, continued to talk on.

"I don't see what's bothering you. We all know that physically, you're the strongest among us, and I'm the fastest. Link is the most experienced, or I at least think he is. It's a nice balance, all of us together, so why are you trying to make yourself stronger?"

Reza scowled at Malik, managing to bop him on the head despite running. "Look at what is being thrown at us nearly every week. Whoever is sending those Dark Copies isn't going to stand idle, using the same type of units that have been proven to fail against us. Do you remember the Dark Angels? While we managed to accomplish a bit, it was Link and Link only that killed them all. Whether it was because he was better prepared or equipped, we can at least match that by being better." 

Malik raised a finger to his mouth, thinking about what she said. "You're right, in fact. What we face aren't going to get any weaker, at least I don't think so. Maybe I should train as well."

Reza nodded. "Yes, you should train. But wherever you train, train away from me."

"I'm hurt, you know?"

"Good."

"That's cruel of you, you know that? Why, if it was me, I'll have been more polite in saying what you said. I might have said something along the lines of 'I would prefer it if you kept your distance' or 'would you kindly work your activities elsewhere, away from my presence so that I can focus better?' but you don't seem to say that."

"The reason I'm to the point is because you keep talking. So shut up and leave me alone."

*

"Hmm, so you want to learn how to make a sword, eh?" Darunia pondered aloud, a hand scratching his messy white hair. "What does that scroll exactly say?"

Link took a peek at the scroll before looking at Darunia again. "Do you really want to know what it _exactly _says? Most of it is gibberish, anyway."

Darunia waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry; sometimes there are hidden clues in the most blatant of words. I'll see what I can do from what I hear."

Link nodded and opened the scroll. Staring at the parchment, he recited: "I'm so proud that my son works on a farm. He has a nice wife – there shall be a time the Mark of the Deity shall come to pass and needs to be – after all, she made me scrambled eggs for breakfast. I like eggs; I must admit they have a special – wielded. Emotions will run rampant within a person's – flavour to them. She also served me milk, specially milked from the cows on the – mind set, but only a few will unlock the Second Seal. He who is destined to be Hero must help change the – field, and I definitely like the taste. I admit, it does not really compare to Lon-Lon milk, but hey. I lost my – focus of these emotions into a specified emotion, not the wild – shoes from yesterday. Oh well, I'll have to go to a cobbler, though I think-"

"I don't think you need to say anymore. I think I get the picture here." Darunia interrupted Link's recitation, to which he gladly complied with. "Somewhere inside the Fire Temple is a great forgery, and since you have the Goron Tunic you'll have no problems getting there. Unfortunately, only Biggoron knows where it is, and as you can guess, he's too big to fit in, and his eyesight has been failing him nowadays so he can't properly draw a map. I'm afraid that you'll have to find it yourself." Darunia looked a bit apologetic at that. 

Link was nonetheless grateful. "I can't say how much I appreciate what you're doing for me, even though you could turn me down. I wish there was something I could do in return-"

"Pshaw! You needn't do a thing for me, what are Sworn Brothers for?" Darunia gave Link a mighty pound to the back, knocking him off his feet. 

Link paused for a moment, staring at the bottle of ink that had dropped out of his pouch when he was knocked down. "I got an idea," he cried suddenly, scrambling to his legs, "a Goron I passed earlier said that you need to go deeper into the Cavern for more minerals. I could go in and draw you a map, and highlight any specific composites you guys like to eat."

Darunia shook his head at that. "Nah, you do not need to do that, though I like that thought very much. The problem is that you don't know Dodongo Cavern well enough to know where to start drawing the map."

Link dismissed that excuse quickly. "I went in there to fight the King Dodongo, so I think I know most of the nook and crannies quite well. I also found a map there – I'm sorry to say that it was off a Goron who got killed by a Beamos – and you can get a person to point out where those starting points are, and I can work my way from there. I owe you that much at least, and I need to pull my weight around here. Besides, I probably have to correct equipment for the job."

Darunia laughed heartily at that. "Pulling your weight, eh? If only all my people were like that, instead of lying down all the time. Very well, if you insist, I can't really do anything to stop you. I'll get one of my men to draw on your map and lead you down." 

Link smiled briefly. "Great, I'll do it tomorrow. Today, I'll have to grow accustomed to the humid heat around here."

*

 "That's training?" Reza inquired, raising an eyebrow to what Malik was doing. All it seemed to her was that he was spinning in mid air. 

"Yeah," he wheezed, touching down before hopping up to do another roll, "it's great for co-ordination and leg muscles, plus it is more fun than running."

Reza shrugged. "Stop for a moment, then." Curious, he did, and when Reza removed the weighted coat, she placed it on him before gesturing for him to resume his activities.

Malik had suddenly found that he couldn't jump with it on.

"Have fun, I'm going to find some scorpions to place at your feet." She chuckled as she walked off.

"What for? You're not one of those sadistic people, who enjoy other people's pain, are you?" Malik had a vague guess on what the answer was, but it was better to be confirmed. After all, if she is, he'll stay at least ten metres away from her.

Reza laughed, giving him an evil grin. "Dance boy, dance."

*

"Ah, Dodongo Cavern. Just visiting it brings back memories, doesn't it, eh Navi?" Link smiled as he tossed a bomb at a nearby Beamos. Navi looked disgruntled of being here again, choosing to stay in his cap where no baby Dodongo would see her as food.

"The large spaces," Link swung his arm, encompassing the main hall of the Cavern.

"The cramped corridors," Navi grumbled, getting out of the hat once to point to the tunnel they were going to walk through.

"The heated wind,"

"The foul air,"

"The adrenaline rush,"

"The near death experiences,"

"The radiating glow of the lava,"

"The radiating pain of stepping on it,"

"Why are you such a pessimist today?" Link inquired, waiting for the Deku Scrub to stop firing. How it got inside this cavern without catching fire, he did not know. From his journeys in Termina, being in Scrub form and just touching a fleck of fire meant imminent death (thank the lords that there was water nearby to drown in instead).

"Why are _you such an optimist today? We are wondering into an area we have no clue about, that is right underneath a volcano, and should have lava rifts all over the place! I don't know about you, but I'm going to stay as far away from all that molten rock as possible. You can walk through it, but I won't."_

After deflecting the shot back, and getting the Scrub to leave him alone, Link replied, "Relax, I'm not suicidal enough to walk on lava. Besides, you fly, so what worries do you have about walking into lava? I'm wearing the Goron tunic right now, so a bit of fire wouldn't hurt me at all."

"Yeah, but explosions would."

Link nodded, frowning at that thought. Maybe the Gorons should make a boom proof jacket or something. "I guess they would, why?"

"It's because you're stepping on a Baby Dodongo."

Link wasn't given the time to say 'oops' when the sudden explosion sent him flying a few feet up.

Navi smirked as Link clutched his head as he got up. "I was right, the near death experiences."

"Oh shut up."

Gliding lower, Navi sighed. "And my statement of 'the radiating pain of stepping on lava' holds true."

"Why?"

"Take a guess."

Looking down, Link groaned at what he was slowly sinking in. "Why me..."

A/N: There! It took quite a while, but I finished this chapter. It's a bit unpolished, but hey, I did it at least.

The chemistry stuff I was talking about on Shikaku's liquid fire stuff is all made up, really. The copper sulphate is what makes the thing blue, and I know that heating copper gets you a green fire (over a Bunsen burner). The magnesium was what I made to spark it, for I'm sure most of us know that magnesium glows very bright on fire. Lithium is reactive, and that was supposed to make the fire going. Sodium chloride, I have no idea why I put that in there. The iron is magnetic, and in this chemical is weaved as an outer net, to which the sword is pretty much a magnet so it holds the liquid to the sword. Carbon, I'm sure we all know burns.

Other than that, the quote Reza said was a modified (by me) version of what Sun Zi (some call him Sun Tzu, for some reason) wrote in his book 'The Art of War' (Sun Zi Bing Fa – Troop Deployment by Sun Zi, I think). Comments, criticism, whatever is welcome. A little something just to remember to look out for the next chapter: Volvagia does awaken.


	14. In Death Mountain

Chapter 14: In Death Mountain

"Ninety four, ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven..." Reza panted, as she did her own push ups. Sierra was watching amused at her sister's toils, taking particular enjoyment of the stress Reza seemed to be facing.

"You really should work harder, you know. The average Gerudo can do two hundred and fifty push ups." Sierra sighed, biting into a red apple and ignoring Reza's snarl of annoyance.

"The average _twenty five year old Gerudo, you twit, and I'm only half that age. It would also be easier if you weren't sitting on me!" She grumbled, collapsing after doing a hundred and two push ups. She spat out a mouthful of dirt when her face slammed into the ground, rolling over to get Sierra off._

"They're just numbers. Thirteen, twenty five, they're nearly the same. Besides, a little bit more weight won't hurt you." She calmly replied, handing over a new apple for Reza to take.

Reza rolled her eyes as she took it. "A little bit of weight? A _little bit of weight? Sierra, you certainly don't weigh a 'little bit'! I might as well be trying to carry a hippo for all I care!"_

Sierra narrowed her eyes, standing up to look more imperious. Her eyes narrowed. "A... hippo, you say?"

Reza gathered herself, throwing the unfinished apple away and cracking her knuckles. "What do you want me to say, an elephant?"

Round one, commence.

*

"Where by Goddesses do these things come from?" Link growled, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws of a Baby Dodongo. Navi was busy avoiding the claws of a Lizalfos, so he couldn't get any information from that source. Angrily, he punched the creature as it jumped again, then kicking its glowing body towards the Lizalfos. Hearing the satisfying explosion, he ran up close to deliver a quick knife hand chop towards the monster's throat. When it fell, he furiously stomped on its chest, preventing any breath from getting in.

He was about to proudly stand victorious on the dying body before another Baby Dodongo tried to take a bite of his ankles.

Giving that one a solid kick, he climbed onto a rock to draw out this part of the cavern.

"You do know that there are around nine or ten Baby Dodongos down there, right?" Navi asked worriedly. She doubted they could jump high enough to be dangerous, but the way they kept ramming their heads onto the rock and exploding would surely break it.

"They're nothing to worry about, but if you feel so worried," he grabbed a loose pebble that was shaken from all the explosions and chucked it into the group of creatures, hitting one solidly on the head. It yelped for a moment before exploding, taking out the neighbouring Baby Dodongos with it. Link was still calmly drawing this region of the cave.

"How come you didn't draw your sword once in this cavern? You even fought the Lizalfos with your nearly bare hands." Navi questioned, absently correcting the annotations he was putting for the rocks.

"Well, I figured it would be good magic practice if I infused it into my hands so that they became much stronger temporarily. It doesn't cost much as I only use it for a split second, and even then I don't need to use it to full power. It's quite cool, really." Link picked up another stone and chucked it at another Baby Dodongo. When he finished drawing on the map, he hopped off the rock and proceeded on. He was forced to fight again when three Lizalfos tried to team up against him.

"Great, so much for fighting bare handed." Link drew out his sword, scowling when seeing the slight crack at the base. The sword will last, though, he didn't fear of that problem.

At once two of them rushed in from his sides, swinging their swords in a wild manner. Raising his shield, he managed to block the right attack and crossed swords with the left. Of course, that left his front open which the third Lizalfos gladly took.

Link shoved the right Lizalfos had to clear up space for him to block the front one. Deciding that he needed to remove the left one as fast as possible, Link focussed his mind onto that one. 

One of the problems of fighting Lizalfos was that they had a longer range than you did, and when you get too close they'll resort to their claws. The best way to defeat them was to stun them, but presently Link didn't have any Deku Nuts to help him.

Oh well, time to improvise.

*

Malik was bored. While that was usually a good thing for everyone else, it was always a bad thing for him. He had finished throwing his six throwing knives at a bulls-eye fourteen times, giving up on that sport when he struck the very centre twelve consecutive times.

"Let's see what I can do," He muttered to himself, staring out at the vast desert, "I see sand, sand, some more sand, some rocks, sand, funny little plants, sand, a fortress and sand. What am I supposed to do?" Malik laughed at the thought of annoying the Gerudo adults nearby. Hopefully, he would see another day afterwards...

"Yeah right," He grumbled, "like I will." While most men would have been ecstatic to be surrounded by sand, stone and women, it was very tricky for Malik to enjoy such thoughts when the adults treated you as a prisoner and the children as a toy to beat up.

Sighing, he dragged his feet across the sand to pluck his knives from the target. Shuffling the way back, he breathed deeply before throwing again.

"Eighty five, eighty six, eighty seven..."

*

Slinging his shield, Link only had a few seconds to act. Swinging his fist to punch the Lizalfos's face, he quickly opened it and channelled a bit of power in there. When the Lizalfos regained its composure, the first thing it saw was an open palm. An open palm that was launching a fireball into its face. 

Link smiled slightly. The Lizalfos would be unaffected by the heat, since that species lives right next to lava chasms. But due to their usual life in caves, a big flash of light would blind them temporarily. It was a simple matter of running his sword through the poor victim's stomach then slashing down and letting it keel over from blood loss and agony.

It's gory, painful, sadistic, unethical, but effective. A personal motto of Link that drove him through all the fighting before: it's not what you want that has to be done but what is necessary. You do not need to enjoy what is required, you do not need to believe what is needed is right.

Link had to be grateful for having a partner like Navi. While he had been busy disembowelling the Lizalfos, Navi had kept the other two occupied by flitting in between the two and giving them good kicks in the eyes. In fear of accidentally gutting the other guy while they were trying to rip Navi into shreds half blind, they resorted to their sharp claws to randomly swipe in front of their faces. Link had to marvel how she was handling them; soon, they'll be so close to each other, scratching ferociously that they will in the end hurt one another.

Link didn't wait for that moment to come, for he instantly charged behind one and with a magically infused punch shattered the unfortunate soul's spine before kicking it. Before the other one could do anything, he whisked in front of it and surrounding its throat with his fingers, he started applying pressure. When his physical power wasn't enough to crush it, he fuelled it with magic. And more magic. And more magic.

Navi had to wince when she heard the horrifying sound of a wind pipe collapsing and the smashing of the bone. She almost felt sorry for them. Then again, it's really hard to feel pity to something that makes you look like an afternoon snack. 

"Why'd you do that for? Usually you give them quick deaths and let the corpses decay naturally." Pausing at that thought, she wondered why they vanished so fast. Maybe there were some spores in the air that quickly attached to a dead thing and did its work at a frantic rate. Ideally, it should take a couple of days before anything happens.

"I decided to let the bigger Dodongos eat them. That way, we won't have to worry about them trying to eat us instead. It's good to recycle." Navi frowned slightly. Although Link tended to be very practical, this was going a bit far than normal. For a frightening second, she wondered whether Link killed the way he did not only to strengthen his mana reserves, but also because he liked the pain he saw.

'That's not like Link,' she apprehended herself silently, 'he's probably just trying to make it easier for us.' Emboldened by that assumption, she drifted over to his shoulder, trusting his ideas and what he was doing.

*

"This is a game that Link likes to play. It's a bit like chess, but with many pieces, a bigger board and once placed, the pieces can't move." Reza said evenly, though challenge burned in her eyes.

Sierra nodded solemnly, sending back just as threatening looks back to her sister as she explained the rules of the game. When she finished, Sierra brushed up on the rules of the match. "So the loser has to do sixty push ups with the winner sitting on her, correct? After that, we head onto the second round." Reza nodded in agreement, and grabbing a small fistful of black pebbles, raised her closed fist for Sierra to see. Carefully, Sierra pulled out a handful of white stones, and counting carefully, placed a certain number of pebbles down.

Two stones.

 Releasing the black stones from her grasp, Reza counted the number of pebbles, and unfortunately proved to be even.

'Bugger,' Reza grumbled internally as she handed a happy Sierra the pot holding the black pebbles, 'this is not good.'

*

"Um, Link? This place looks exactly like the previous place we were before." Navi stated, pointing to the rock with scorch marks around it and a half remaining Lizalfos body.

Link frowned as he stared at the map he drew. Lifting it up for the glow of magma to help him see, he tried to remember of any errors he might have made.

'Ah,' he noticed, pinching the bridge of his nose, 'this was a left turn, not right.'

"You're right Navi," he grumbled as he rearranged what he drew, "we went in a circle."

Navi sighed and rested on the burning ground. It was better than hovering in the stuffy and hot air, where the foul stench of the body rose at least. "We need a guide, Link. You're not sufficient enough."

"We need a compass, Navi. _You're_ not sufficient enough."

"Whatever. Oh, there's a Baby Dodongo at four o'clock." Automatically, Link picked up a random stone and chucked it at the general angle Navi said. 

Link nodded slightly when he heard a small squeak of surprise then an explosion. "It can chew on that first."

Navi sighed. Looking around, she saw a small pebble that was around the size of her leg. Maybe she could pick that up, see whether she was stronger or anything...

*

"Thirty seven, thirty eight..." Sierra wheezed as Reza sat on her. It was quite a comical sight, seeing a person sitting on a smaller person that was doing push ups.

"Keep going sister, you got around another twenty to do." Reza laughed lightly. Life was good.

"Shut up. Just you wait, Reza, just you wait." She had to push those words out as her as her body screamed for a moment of relaxation. 

"I'm waiting. You still got another twenty." Sierra could only fume at that.

*

After a while, Link had covered at least fifteen kilometres worth of area, and now was heading deeper into the cave. It looked just like all the other areas of the cave, but there were a few differences.

"I'm not going in there." Navi stated adamantly, not wanting to go into that area.

"Come on, sure, it's getting a bit hot right now, a small amount hotter than at the entrance, but we got a job to do." Link tried to reason, gesturing to the map.

She stared at him incredulously. "A bit hot? A BIT HOT!? Link, I don't think you really understand, but its thirty degrees hotter than when we first started! It was hot enough to boil water at the entrance; the temperatures we'll be facing will be enough to boil me!"

Link could not really find fault at that. He was grateful for wearing his Goron tunic right now. "Well, you were alright when we faced Volvagia." 

Navi shook her head. "Link, when you fought Volvagia, I stayed right behind his head where the fire will not blow. I was already sweating buckets from the lava present, and don't think for a moment I was happy about that. Besides, do you see those steam jets? Those are sulphur gases being ejected from the mountain, created by a build up beneath the earth. Walking through that would definitely burn your skin and it is poisonous, as well as stinks like rotten eggs. To get to this part of the cave, we're going to be walking through that, and if I'm right (and I'm always right) there'll be a lot more to walk through." 

Link took a quick sniff of the air and was a bit sick from doing that. Navi was right, it smelled bad. It would most likely hurt his skin also, even though he was wearing the Goron tunic. But Link needed to go through; after all, that was what he promised Darunia. The Gorons would most likely be unaffected by the sulphur, because in his Goron form he could sleep in acid and not feel a thing...

"Navi, prepare to see a bit of magic." Searching through the small pack he strapped to himself for the masks, he pulled out the round-faced Goron one. To say the least, Navi was a bit shocked when seeing Link placing it on his face and starting to change form.

"That looked painful." She winced slightly at the muffled scream and pain filled expression he just gave.

"You're a master of the obvious," He stated dryly, his voice a lot deeper than his normal one, "but let's go. This body can go though acid unharmed, just stay in my cap while we go over the sulphur vents." Navi looked a bit dubious at that.

To prove his point, Link strode proudly across the sulphur vent, waving to her on the other side before walking back. He was about to say something before choking badly, his eyes tearing up. 

"Ok," Link muttered, returning to his normal state, "the Gorons would most likely not go in there. It stinks too badly."

 *

"So what's the second match?" Reza stated calmly. There was no way her little sister Sierra could beat her. She had years more experience if it was mental and a more fit body if it was physical.

"It's who can create the most amazing sculpture." Reza cursed silently at that. Since Sierra had more nimble fingers, so that would help since they were using some weird type of clay to build whatever they would build. What did her sister call it? Reza believed it was play-dough. It was a strange name, and those that sold it said that they usually found clumps of old play-dough in the Southern Forests, and it was just a matter of recycling it properly and discovering what it was made out of.

"So what's the theme?" She asked casually, cracking her fingers to allow more flexibility. It better not be something like pretty little flowers...

"It's pretty little flowers." Sierra stated, snickering when she saw Reza pound her head on the table. She had to stop snickering though from lack of oxygen.

"No strangling!" She cried, weakly punching Reza's arms.

*

It was getting incredibly hot. 

It was getting much hotter than the sulphur vent place.

It was getting so hot that all sweat Link could produce evaporated in an instant.

It was getting so hot that Link's sword was glowing red.

... No wait, that's just the reflection of the magma. Forget it.

"Do you have any water?" Navi asked hopefully, resting on his shoulders, too tired to flap her own wings to move around. Link silently handed her his bottle of water, and gratefully, she hopped to the lid as he pulled it off. Looking down, she was greeted by a load of steam.

"There should be some water left, but I still think it's boiling." Link forced those words out. All this heat was leaching his strength away and what would he do for some water. Damn the heat, if there was only something cold...

Link paused at that thought and smiled. Searching through his medical kit, he pulled out a roll of bandages, ripping some off before placing the rest back. Navi protested slightly when he poured the frothing water on the two bandages (never mind about his hand), but quietened when she saw him pull out an arrow.

Link frowned slightly. Some day, he would have to learn how to put ice into something without needing an arrow. But for now, he isn't complaining.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, he fused the arrow with magic and subtly altered it from pure mana to extreme cold. Proudly, he placed one frozen bandage on his shoulder which Navi gladly took her perch on and held one in his hand, applying it to his forehead.

Ah, the wonders of magic. The ice shouldn't melt for a couple of minutes, and even then it would be just a cold, damp cloth. It should last at least for ten minutes.

After seeing enough lava, Link deducted that they were in the Fire Temple. Unfortunately, nearly all the monsters here were covered in fire one way or the other, so he was forced to resort to his sword instead of his hands.

Ducking under a Fire Bubble, Link swung his sword upwards, neat cutting the Bubble into two. Unfortunately, that made him lose his balance on the thing ledge he was shuffling on, and flailing his arms, managed to catch the edge as he fell.

"It was a drop to a fiery death, molten rock sloshing over the possible corpse that had died from the unbearable heat. The eyes melted first, screams of the poor victim cut short as the burning liquid oozed into his brain through the eye sockets, scorching away the vital areas. Skin peeled at a tremendous rate, exposing the raw flesh underneath that smouldered from the heat. Within four vivid and cruel seconds, the poor victim had been killed, yet the flowing magma still continued to torture the dead body-"

"Navi, can you stop that? You're freaking me out." Link shuddered at her description of what would happen if he fell. He had no intention to fall however, so he didn't really need to know which parts were fiction and which parts were facts.

"I'm planning on writing a novel for us fey folk, so everyone can enjoy the thrilling tales of the grand journey we embark on. The more gruesome the tale, usually the more enrapturing it is." Navi stated, helping Link by dragging his hat back to the ledge.

"Well, those 'thrilling tales' would be cut down quickly if you keep reading them out to me." Link muttered silently as he grabbed his hat and placed it back. Nervously, he inched away from the flowing lava, releasing a breath of relief when they reached solid ground.

It was most unfortunate that when he fell, both frozen bandages were dropped, so both of them had to accustom to the draining heat again.

*

"Ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine," Malik muttered watching as the blade sunk nicely in the centre, "a hundred thousand." He stood proudly amidst the tattered collection of broken targets around him, the daggers he threw blunt from excess use and every single target sporting a mark in the very centre where one of his numerous knives had pierced. A gentle wind blew up, disturbing his blue bangs that hid his valiant eyes.

He slumped after a while, sighing. "By Nayru, I really need to get a life." In the distance, he could hear some mellow music play, mocking laughter and grunts of irritancy echo through the dunes. A short gust blew yet again, and with a noisy creak, the last target standing fell straight into the sand, a small billow and quiet thump marking its contact with the ground. 

The music played on, but it was slightly more erratic than before the target fell.

"Yeah, that's my thoughts in music. The music is quite good."

*

"The violin isn't your fiddle, is it?" Sierra chuckled; laughing at Reza's snarling face as she tried to play one of the hardest pieces in the Desert.

"Shut up." She grunted, taking a second off the tune to whack her sister with the bow. "That was a really lame pun."

Sierra shrugged her shoulders, dancing to the tune and occasionally jerking. "Good pun, lame pun, it's still a pun. Music is different. This music is quite bad."

"You're getting on my nerves, my dear sister." Reza hissed through gritted teeth, the tune going out of whack.

"You lost, I won and that's all that matters. One more round and we'll see who is better among us." Sierra smiled cutely, dancing to the tune like she was suffering constipation.

*

Oddly enough, despite being in a volcano, Link was presently fishing. Rod in hand and fishing wire taut, he looked like he was ready to catch a twenty pound pond dweller. There were only a few differences though. Instead of standing like he used to, he was sitting down. The 'pond' was actually bubbling acid, something which nothing could live in.

"Have you lost your mind?" Navi asked from her perch on his shoulder. 

"Au contraire, Navi," Link stated, reeling in the wire before chucking it back in again, "I know that Gorons once went through this Fire Temple long ago to fight Volvagia."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Gorons are immune to acid, so I figure that some of them walked through this pond – it's only two feet deep, after all – to get to the other side. I'm just fishing for any equipment some of them might have dropped."

Navi rolled her eyes, thinking it was best to humour Link for now. After all, walking in the heat would tire you out tremendously, so this stop would help him gather his strength. "So where did you get that fishing wire?"

"I fished it from the previous acid pond we walked through." Navi blinked at that and stayed silent.

After five more minutes of staring at Link fish in the acid pond, she was about to speak out but some caught the fishing wire first. Calmly, Link reeled it in, proving that the thing he pulled out appeared to be some shoulder pads. But there were a few quirks about it Navi found very interesting.

The first quirk was that it was in perfect condition. Age usually made things look, well, older than they first looked like, but this thing looked like it was forged yesterday. Goddess knows when the last time someone ventured this deep in the Fire Temple was. Also was the odd fact that it was in bubbling acid and yet untouched.

The second thing was its size. Navi could only think of the brave Gorons of past that traversed this far to battle Volvagia, and they (by the descriptions she read off old scripts) were around twice the size of the average Goron. These shoulder guards were smaller than a bulky Goron's shoulders, but perfect for a Hylian adult.

Link stared at the bluish gleam of the set of armour. Shrugging, he looped the set around his head and strapped them onto his shoulders (the guards were actually two objects but with a small chain connecting both of them). Immediately, he fell from the weight.

"Holy, how strong was the person who wore these things?" Link swore, using up nearly all his strength just to get on one knee. "These things weigh about a tonne! They didn't weigh this much in my hands." Link gave up on getting up again as the weight dragged him down again.

"Interesting," Navi mumbled as she neared Link, "these things are enchanted. Not only do they get heavier when you wear them properly, they fit you properly. Before, they should have been far too big for you, but look!"

"I'll look when I can get my face out of the ground." Link's muffled voice stated as he tried to push himself upright again.  

*

"Back to the adrenaline rushes, I see." Sierra said, both scimitars set in a ready position, he feet placed in a stance that would allow her quick movement to any four directions. Reza was in the same posture, but instead of holding her scimitars diagonally up, they were aiming diagonally down, an improvisation she made from fighting smaller and faster monsters.

 "Yes. Whoever falls to the ground first is the loser and is the loser of all three tests we made up." Reza stated plainly, gripping her swords tightly. They had called Malik to preside over the bout, and as a witness there would be no cheating or lying. 

Sierra and Reza stared each other in the eye as Malik droned on the safety procedures they'll have to take. "... no targeting the neck, head, heart or kidney areas. If you want to strike each other, it'll be with the blunt side of the blade. No aiming for debilitating attacks like swinging the sword at the eyes or injuring ankles. Now that you got that, begin!"

*

It took a while, but Link managed to get back on his feet and maintain his balance. He didn't really know what the enchanted set did (aside from setting the weight underneath it above it), but he did know that it took just a bit of raw mana fuelled into it to lighten the load on his shoulders.

"Actually, those things are quite good training devices," Navi stated as she sat on Link's head. "If you're a fighter, you'll be forced to carry around your own weight – literally – which would make you stronger from the strain. If you're a mage, you'll have to keep channelling mana into it, and your reserves will eventually grow from that effort, as will your control."  Presently, Link was putting only the barest amount of mana into it so it felt like he was carrying two weeks full of shopping instead of his entire body weight and armour.

"Well, if it protects my shoulders from bangs, then it's good enough." Link said as he walked down a taut rope, being extra careful not to trip with all that magma underneath him.

"Yeah, yeah." Navi lied back, staring at the rough rock that made the cave's ceiling. Turning her head slightly, she could see the glow of the magma on the rocks above. Briefly she wondered whether where they'll be going would have magma underneath them...

"Hey Link! Where _are _we going, anyway?" 

"Out, once we find the way."

"Don't you have a map of this place?"

Link grumbled slightly at that. "It's not my fault I dropped it. It's not my fault that it was incinerated the moment it touched the lava. It's not my fault a blinking Fire Bubble tried to jump me while I was reading the map." 

Navi shook her head. "So, we're lost?"

"I couldn't have put it better myself."

"Oh joy." The sarcasm was dripping so thickly on that it even took on a physical form.

"Navi, I don't like it if you spit in my hair."

*

Malik had to say, the battle was impressive. He had fought Sierra before, but seeing it from a distance he could see how fast she could move. He had joined arms with Reza before (unfortunately that was on horseback and all he did was throw knives and try to keep the horses calm with his masks), but seeing the grace of how she fought from a better distance, he almost felt a certain amount of pride having fought with and against these two people.

You could tell that Sierra was leaps faster than her sister. Her body and eye coordination was just as fast as she could move, and that was saying something. If her eyes caught sight of an incoming swing, her body will instantaneously react and either block or evade. 

But Reza was the most experienced and better in terms of skill. Where Sierra fought the moment, Reza battled three moments ahead. She planned every move around six seconds before it came to that, and was expecting what Sierra would do despite her speed. It was a fair match, Reza with her superior strength and skills compared to Sierra with her uncanny speed and coordination.

*

"I seem to remember this place." Link muttered as he stared at the glowing walls and a thin bridge ahead.

"Is it because we went in circles?" Navi added helpfully, staring at the bridge as well.

Link shook his head, but kept his sight on the bridge ahead. "I don't really think that's the reason, perhaps we went here before when we travelled ahead of time." 

Navi scrutinised the layout before nodding slowly. "If I remember correctly, this place was quite important. I can't remember what happened here though."

Link shrugged and started walking towards the bridge. The best way to see what happens is to be there when it happens, after all.

He was slightly surprised when the old wooden bridge collapsed after he got off it, but was happier that he was on safe ground than in the lava pit below. 

"Look Navi, a round island with nine holes full of lava. I think this place is-" Link was cut short when a sudden rush of heat appeared behind him. Twirling around, he stared in a bit of worry at the red dragon that was examining him. "...Volvagia's domain."

The dragon surged out of the lava hole and curling into a hovering ellipse, circled around Link's position. "Hello, Hero of Time. I vaguely remember meeting you at some point."

Navi bobbled a bit at that. "But you met us in the future? How can you remember something that had not happened?"

Volvagia gave off a capricious laugh, lowering his head so he was staring at Link face to face. "When you live a dozen millennia like I have, seeing the effects and tampering of time is child's play. Yes, I remember you seemed to keep hitting my head with that over bloated hammer of yours." Link chuckled nervously at that.

"Eh he... well, you were under Ganondorf's control, and I had to free Darunia, which you kept in your control. No hard feelings, right?" Link said, thinking that he would have sweated if it wasn't for the fact it evaporated the moment it came out.

Volvagia nodded sagely. "Indeed, I bear no grudge against you – after all, I am well accustomed to the ways of survival – kill or be killed, though I do find it perturbing to remember my own death." He closed his eyes for a moment, bringing his tail closer to scratch his head. "Nonetheless, what brings you to this region of Death Mountain? I am assuming that it was not to greet me."

"Well, yeah, you're right on that-"

"Oh, I weep at the cruelty of youths these days! Young people ignore the older generations that linger, turning their faces to the needs and desire of those that have experienced much!"

"Huh?" Link was confused. He really didn't think that Volvagia would act like that, being the behemoth of fire that he was.

"Ignorance is bliss, I see. But never mind. What are you here for?"

"I'm actually lost." That paused Volvagia for a bit.

"What, you were searching for the North Pole and ended up here? I do remember an old friend – should be dead by now, after all, I met him seven centuries ago – who was in that problem."

Navi decided to interject. "No, we were just mapping out Dodongo Cavern and ended up here. Before we went in, we were trying to find a way out."

Volvagia chuckled at that. "Well, that'll be a bit difficult as the bridge collapsed. You can't blame it for happening, I only maintain it once every half a millennia, and I never expected anyone to walk on it. If you arrived next week, though, it would have been after I fixed it up."

Link rolled his eyes at that. Talk about bad timing. "Well, is there a way to get out? You may not mind the heat that much, but even with this Tunic this place is stifling."

"Well, you Little Sprite can fly out on your own, but yes, you Little Hero do have a problem. If I fly straight up and through a couple ventilation passages, I could bring you up to the very top of Death Mountain, right above where the Great Fairy resides. She and I were on quite good terms, I might recall, and I think it was her who showed me how to fly properly when I was a wee lad. Ah, don't I love the good old days, when I was frightened by anything larger than a mosquito." 

"That's nice to know, so can you help me get out?" Link asked flatly. Now was not really the time to be reflective of a moment centuries in the past.

"I would gladly help you; after all, you are the only company I have for minus three years. However, I would like to enjoy a sparring match before you Little Ones leave." 

Link sweated at that. Right now, he was a bit too small and weak to wield the Megaton Hammer and his sword was nearly broken from usage. However, he could shape-shift into a Goron (the Zora and Deku form would be too risky in this heat), and that might help a bit.

However, that form is far too bulky and slow, unless he rolled, and he definitely didn't want to fall off the edge. So...

"Sure."

*

Dodge, side step, swing, flip back, duck, thrust, spin, slice, slash, strife, evade, block, slash and finally jump and strike. Reza could already see a pattern forming in Sierra's attacks, and she was milking whatever she could off it. Just wait for it, wait for it... there! At that, she quickly and brutally lashed out, hoping to get in the single blow that would end the fight. Sierra yelped and jumped to the side, but not before her left arm took the hit. She scowled as she gripped it with her other arm (strapping both scimitars to her back for a while).

"Hey ref! She's not allowed to do that, is she?" Sierra protested, pointing to her bruised arm.

A mumble then a snore was her only reply.

Reza rolled her eyes and walked over to him. Waving her hands above his face first, she then proceeded to kick him. "Blue Boy, wake up or I'll get Sierra to sit on you, and you won't like that." Ignoring her sister's shrill cries at that, she kept on booting his side.

*

Link was running as if his life was depending on it, and unless Volvagia was pulling his blows, his life really depended on it. What he needed was for the dragon to get low enough so he could try and strike it, but he seemed smart enough to learn from his past mistakes and kept to the air where Link could not touch him.

That was one of the major problems – For Link to try and snipe at him with his bow, he needed to be still and that would give Volvagia enough time to make him into a side course. There were only a few moves he could do:

The first move he could try to do was throwing his sword at Volvagia and enchants it so that it'll resist when piercing throw the tough dragon hide. That was a very risky gamble, because that would deprive him of an appropriate weapon if it missed, and it would either be fatal or angering if it hit. Killing the old dragon wasn't high on his priorities as he was the one who could get him out.

The other move he could try was to aim with his bow, but like said, that made him an easy target towards the fiery breath that Volvagia seemed to favour as an attack. It was also very hard to aim at a moving target as well, and considering that Navi had to dart backwards now and then to keep herself safe from the fire, using her to take aim would not really help. And unless he charged it with ice, fire or normal attacks would do absolutely nothing (light arrows is going a bit too far).

The best suggestion is to call Volvagia down. How to get him down, Link decided he'll figure it out later. Maybe by tripping and playing dead, but Volvagia probably saw that trick before and would go on roasting him. There had to be a way to lure him down, but so far he was short of ideas.

Link cursed the landscape they were fighting in. As there were no jutting rocks, there were no places to hide and he had to be careful not to trip in those lava holes. Running past another stream of flame, Link turned around and acting upon memory, tossed a fireball like he did against that demon Shikaku.

Navi had to admit, for what an altered Din's Fire lacked in power, it made up with speed, tons and tons of it. She could feel the air pressure surrounding the globe as it whizzed by. However, it also seemed to have the unfortunate effect of sacrificing area of effect for inaccuracy (it whizzed past her head, totally missing Volvagia's body). It detonated against one of the stone walls, sending a few boulders crashing into the flowing lava below.

In the end, Link did not need to lure Volvagia down. Like what happened the last time he fought him, the dragon needed intense amount of heat to stay properly functional and smashing Link aside with his snout, he dived into one of those lava pits.

Link frowned slightly. This was where it got complicated.

Much unlike the previous time he fought him, instead of the lava erupting erratically, all the pits were throwing their contents in the air and welcoming it back again, the timing random as Link had to make sure he didn't get burnt. It was a great shame that Volvagia had flew out of one of those pits when he was busy watching where he took his step, gliding away while he was staring at the ground.

Navi sighed as she sprung from hovering around Link's head to Volvagia's. Link definitely needed a bit more help now, especially since the dragon didn't seem inclined to making the same mistakes as it had before.

*

"You have the right to surrender."

"Like Goddesses I will."

"You better; otherwise I'll have to punish you further."

"You, punishing me? I think you got it mixed up, lady."

"You better count on it. Just admit it: you're losing, I'm winning."

"Hah! The day that happens is the day I care!"

"Well, you better start caring."

"Oh, shut up sister."

"Then get your butt off the ground and grovel at my feet."

"I'm keeping my nose as far away from that stench pit as possible."

"You lost, Sierra, just give it up."

"You're the one with a sword at your stomach, aren't you?"

"You're the one with a sword at your throat, aren't you?"

"Shut up."

"You lost. You're even on the ground."

 Malik, who was sitting a bit back, was watching with a bit of amusement. Reza had managed to clip Sierra on her shins, knocking her down and swung down to which Sierra blocked out of self preservation. She counted on that, and using her other sword targeted her sister's neck, but forgot that Sierra had a second weapon as well, and as she deflected it, aimed it at Reza's stomach as Reza realigned her aim. 

Personally, Malik had to say it was a draw. Sierra was banged up at the shins and was on the ground, Reza had a couple of miniscule cuts on her arms which had to hurt. Maybe it would be a good time to end the feud.

Walking up to them, he breathed in deeply. "And the winner is," Taking a quick glance at each of them so that they both had his attention, "me!" Quickly he shoved Reza down, and kicking her sister out of the way, ran off chuckling at his own ingenuity. 

Reza growled as she got back up. "Truce?" she requested.

"Yeah, truce." Sierra answered. Grumbling lightly at her abused shins (Malik tried to kick there to make her dart off) she said, "It's now time to do some boy hunting, and I'm focussing on the hunting part."

*

All in all, Link only managed to clip Volvagia with his sword around three times when Volvagia rushed into the lava and flew out again. Those cuts were very, very light, not even penetrating the dragon's armour. Link was presently bruised from dropping down to avoid the fiery breath, battered when Volvagia decided to drop boulders again and fried from the times he stepped in the lava and the dragon's breath reached him. Most unfortunately, his sword lay in two pieces from the hard strikes he used just to chip at the dragon.

What he would do for the Master Sword around now... The King Dodongo was a piece of cake, as he even slain him with a couple of bomb flowers, a tiny dagger (from his larger perceptions) and the stupid monster's idiocy of swallowing anything that went its way. Volvagia had fought him before (kind of) and was presently living, learning from past experiences. Link just had the hilt of his sword and a bit of the blade, the other part sinking in one of the lava pits. 

There were a few perks to this though. The first perk was that Volvagia could throw a more magical fire, one not relying on the heat he absorbed from the lava he took the occasional dip in and combusting his breath. That fire was based on ten millennia worth of training in the arcane arts, a fire that sparked between orange, green and blue and seemed to fry everything in its path. The perk that came with that was that since Volvagia didn't seem to be under Ganondorf's influence, he was pretty much an ally, and with such firepower on his side they'll have no problems.

It would also help him forge his sword with that type of heat intensity. The Mark of the Deity can only be made by the best, with the best.

The second perk was that he was immune to that fire. Whenever he did not manage to outrun it, the special shoulder guards seemed to glow slightly and absorb the fire. It came with the downside of that he was carrying something hotter than coal on his shoulders, but the mana he kept charging into it seemed to cool it down a bit. Link was having a vague suspicion that his shoulder guards didn't just absorb magical fires, but anything magical.

The last perk that would save his skin was that Volvagia seemed to be tiring. If Link could hold his own for a couple more minutes, the dragon might surrender out of sheer exhaustion and boredom (no way could anyone find it funny that the Hero of Time kept tripping on his feet to escape a bit of fire).

The problem was that Volvagia seemed to be pulling out his big guns.

Navi yelped slightly as Volvagia suddenly cranked up the heat around him and dove at Link like a blazing meteor, red and blue flames flickering around the dragon. Link managed to duck as he swooped above, but Navi could see the scorch marks on his heat resistant Goron Tunic. She had a hard time following him now, as with his burning body kept moving in circles to build up momentum, he would suddenly charge down intending to punt Link off the island. 

Thankfully, Link was smart enough to try and dodge it, not block it. Heavens know what would happen to his trusty shield if he tried. 

This continued for quite a while, and Navi could see that Link won't be able to hold his own against another charge.

*

"Oh Malik, where _are _you?" Reza sing-sung, using an interesting claw weapon attached to each arm, three blades extended on each weapon. "I just want to show you a certain relaxation technique, we Gerudo call it the 'prisoner's massage'."

"While you're using that thing? No way!" You could hear a voice in the rafters, and looking up, Reza could see the figure of a male.

Oops.

*

Link's hope of Volvagia tiring was cut to pieces once the dragon started using his sweep-bombing attack. He was moving far too fast for Link to catch (even Navi was trailing behind instead of next to), and the only clear view he had was when Volvagia dived at him, the blue flames crackling and the sound barrier being breached. Even then it was for only a split second, so Link used it all just to get out of the way.

It's a shame he wouldn't be able to use his shield though, Volvagia was moving too fast for that.

After five attempts to knock Link off the island, Link managed to figure out a few things: Volvagia always seemed to favour attacking Link's right side instead of behind or left for some odd reason. Volvagia also seemed to use a pattern when attacking: go in circles six times and swoop down, circle round one more time and swoop again, circle around his prey for four times before swooping down before arcing back up then trying again. That pattern seemed to keep repeating, so Link had an idea when Volvagia would attack. Also, the dragon seemed to become streamlined when diving so you could only see his face.

Hoping that he had enough information to fight back, Link awaited the next attempt at him to counter attack. It was a desperate move, and if it had been recorded would most likely be overdramatic in its cause. Damn cheesy, too.

Link chuckled lightly at that. He might as well give it a cheesy name too.

Navi was surprised that when Volvagia finished his round and was aiming for Link again, instead of running like a smart self preservation person, Link was charging _towards Volvagia's direction. What was he trying to do, commit suicide? _

There were only a couple of metres in between the dragon and the mortal when Link jumped. With a cry of "Dragon kick!" he slammed the heel of his right foot right into Volvagia's snout.

The sound created from the impact was outstanding. Some parts of the wall crumbled at the sheer sound alone.

But Navi had to marvel at Link's adaptive skills. From what she could see, he had charged all his mana into that jump and kick, carrying out the power of over seventy tonnes worth of rock falling onto a single area in a single moment. Against Volvagia's weight and speed, it just barely managed to cancel out the dragon's attack, though there should have been the tingle of the shock waves coursing through both of them. Thank Farore Link had enough mana left to protect his own body from the heat of Volvagia as well as reinforce his hip joint. 

Stumbling back to his feet, Link smiled slightly. Volvagia seemed a bit surprised that someone – a mere kid – managed to stop his attack with nothing but his own body. Link was feeling a bit sick from dispensing all that mana though, and now seemed a good time to take a nap.

He didn't hear Navi's shout as he crumpled to the ground.

A/N: And Voila! I had finished! Through days of sheer boredom on writing this chapter (I felt it was a bit too prolonged), as well as playing Harvest Moon and GunBound (not to mention reacquainting myself with Diablo II after a long while – sweet Assassins, god bless their martial arts), I have finally completed this chapter.

There were a few things I was going to say, but I seem to have forgotten them. Hmm...

Oh well, thanks for waiting for the coming of this chapter – you guys waited well over a month – and I gratefully thank all those that replied in the last chapter. Ah, it's great to know that your efforts are being appreciated. 

Well, it's time to make myself rich in Diablo 2. See ya!


	15. Hiding

Chapter 15: Hiding

"Yo, you might want to get cracking already," Link could feel someone shove him roughly and when he didn't get up at that kicked him. Link groaned at that; there were only a few female voices that came with enough assurance to do that to him.

"Ten more minutes, Farore." He murmured, rolling away from her dangerous foot to take a snooze again.

"There lies proof of such impertinence of people these days. Wake up anyway, you're already asleep, remember?" She proceeded to kick him again.

"I'm up, I'm up," he groaned, receiving a foot in his face in return for the effort of sitting, "can you please not do that?"

Farore was demure (hah!) enough to blush at that mistake. "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you to get up so soon. Usually you ignore what I say."

"But not what you do, and what you do is very painful." Link grimaced as he gingerly touched his nose, recounting the agonizing experience of her foot colliding.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Nice move, by the way, it has an interesting name. 'Dragon kick' is what you called it, eh?" Farore made a point to show her teeth in that smile. 

Link rolled his eyes at her obvious attempt to insult him. It was said in ancient tomes that Farore was the most adventurous, Din was the most rambunctious and Nayru was the most diligent. If Farore was this... crude, he shuddered at how bad Din would be. "Why did I faint, anyway?"

She smiled condescendingly. "Two reasons."

Link waited for her to continue, but seeing as she seemed like she would prefer to smile at him and laugh internally, he gestured for her to continue. "Well, what are those reasons?"

"What, you want me to tell you?" She said with a false expression of shock.

"Stop playing stupid, you're daft enough that you don't need to act even worse."

"Hey! I find that very rude!" She scowled at him, to which Link waved off.

"No time, to fun, so just tell me what those reasons are." Link was truly wondering if time passed faster in the physical world than in here, but he wasn't going to bet on it. The shorter he stayed here, the longer he gets to enjoy life.

"Meh, you're all business and no fun. Well, out of spite I won't tell you." She grinned triumphantly at him, daring him to challenge her will. Come hell or high water, nothing would deter her mind.

All she found was a flat stare.

"I'm waiting," Link said dryly, tapping his fingers against his knee.

"Such disrespect you show. You do know that I could take away the Triforce of Courage from you, right?" She threatened, expecting him to timidly give way and bow to her will.

"Does Din and Nayru talk to their avatars?" Link asked unexpectedly.

"Well, no, not really. Din says that her guy is too crazy and more of his speech would defile her brain, and Nayru says that her lady is too quiet and won't talk back, her presence being ignored." 

"Exactly, if you kick me out, you bear the risk of getting a psycho or a quiet person the next time round. I'm not exactly trying to challenge you – I'm grateful you don't control thunder, you can't smite me at least – but can you just get to business?" He attempted to plead.

Farore sighed and conjured her customary chair. "You're too analytical for your own good, you know? Those two reasons are actually quite logical; I'm surprised you didn't figure them out. The first reason is that everyone gets dizzy at least from using so much mana in such a short time. You were trying to push all that mana through a tiny opening and bottling it in you leg before releasing it explosively, discharging as much as you could in a single moment. The second reason was that you were very short on mana in the first place. As you kept fuelling those shoulder guards of yours, as well as fighting bare handed earlier with your magic to reinforce you, it was too low to be of any use. You somehow managed to draw mana from a much larger – and much more dangerous – mana source: your life energy. That's why sacrificing people to do unbelievable feats is possible, because they'll be taking the overwhelming amount from the individuals to do whatever ritual they were doing. If you took a bit more, you would most likely have died, but thank your life preservation skills, that will to live limited how much you could draw. Besides, any more would have snapped Volvagia's neck, and you wouldn't get out that way." Farore seemed to find that funny.

Link nodded, thankful that she was now backing on track. "Thanks for the information."

She nodded before smiling mysteriously. "Oh yes, I _do _control thunder. Or indirectly do me. If you ionize a cloud and push it, you get a floating ionized cloud with the occasional bolt exiting to touch the ground and pass on the electrons. If you ionize a cloud and roll it, you get something much worse. [A/N: I can't really seem to remember what happens when you roll a cloud, and someone please tell me if the clouds contain electrons or no] So be careful when stirring my anger, I could shock you in what I can do for revenge."

Link rolled his eyes. "That was a bad pun, you know."

"Whatever. I was going to tell you about those shoulder guards of yours this session, but it's time for you to wake up." With that she attempted to boot him out, but when he conjured iron armour on himself, she deftly pulled out a wooden mallet and smacked him that way.

Farore closed her eyes and pondered. "The most amazing thing of intelligent beings is not their adaptive capabilities to learn but their apparent disinclination to do so. If Link figured that he could teleport out, he wouldn't need to be hit."

*

Link woke up with a start. Although Farore's kicks and hammers were all in the mind, waking up from being hit was by adrenaline coursing through his entire system. He found that most perturbing anyway, as his body one moment was resting properly then was ready for combat. Anyway, it was easy to shake off.

Looking up, he was grateful for seeing the sky above him, proof that Volvagia had done his part and got him out of the mountain. Unfortunately, he could see some minor burns along his arms and felt some on his cheeks, but that could be fixed easily. Looking up, he was expecting to see Navi.

He was not expecting to see a dragon's head up close.

"Yah!" he cried, scrambling backwards until he was a couple of metres away from Volvagia. "Don't do that to me."

"Do what?" Volvagia inquired curiously. All he had been doing was standing guard over Link to threaten any daring Tektites off.

"Never mind, it's not worth knowing. Did you bring me out here?"

"Younger generations these days," He muttered, a light frown on his face, "always deciding what to and not to tell the older people. No respect, that's what." Immediately he brightened. "Yes in fact, I did get you out, but it was the Great Fairy who fixed you up. You should be grateful of having a fairy friend; she acted like a conductor to safely transfer all that raw mana into you." 

Link felt a bit worried at that. He wasn't sure about fairies, but he knew that he felt like he ate far too many potatoes when he tried to drink a lot of magic potions. "Is she alright?"

Volvagia seemed to smile at that. "I'm not so sure, but the last time I checked it was very expensive."

Link frowned at that. What, there was a cost to getting help? And what did he mean by 'I'm not so sure'? That part was worrying him. "What do you mean?"

The dragon chuckled at that. "Have you ever seen a child on sugar? Or have you seen an adult on too much wine? Or have you seen the horrible combination of both?"

At that statement, Navi buzzed in, flying erratically as she bounced along everything. "Link, you're up!" she slurred, landing on Link's shoulder before letting her arms droop, "glad to see you cracking, mate." 

Link was a bit confused at this unnatural behaviour. "Are you alright?"

Navi laughed at that, getting into a pose where she was pointing to the sky. "Am I alright? I feel on top of the world! Hyrule's my grape! The world's my prune! Existence is my raisin! I could conquer anything anyway I want! I could smite the strongest of the strongest – well, the second strongest of the strongest, because I'm first! I can roast the burnt! I can freeze the frozen! I can melt the molten! I can halt the immovable! I can-"

"_I can wait only a bit longer before my patience reaches its limit." Link said, but you could see that there was a smile on his face._

"What is life when you aren't allowed to enjoy it?" She philosophised, staring at the horizon, "What is life if you are denied to see the things around you? What is life when you are rejected from receiving worldly pleasures? What is life if you are all alone?" She started bawling at that, sobbing heavily into Link's tunic's collar. "I don't want to be alone! I never want to be alone!" 

Link paused at that. 

"It'll wear off in a while. If I was stuffed with that much magic, it'll take me only an hour to recover."

Link nodded. "But you're a million times heavier than Navi, and I think she's only just a bit more magical responsive than you are, so how long do you think it'll take?"

Navi stopped crying and was prancing around on Link's head, tugging at his ears occasionally. "Hey, don't exclude me from this conversation! I have rights! I have power! I have fame! You can't ignore me! If what you're talking about is me, I get to chip in my vote!"

Volvagia thought for a second. "Four weeks."

Link almost cried at that. "_Four_ weeks? I can't live with her when she's like that! Especially for four _weeks!"_

"Ha! I won't be alone! Link's with me! Time to dance! Do you know the how to dance a waltz? It doesn't feel appropriate, really, but hey!"

Link carefully pried her off his head and allowed her to spin in circles on the ground. "Do you think the Great Fairy can help extract all that unneeded energy?"

Volvagia shook his head. "She might, but it's a bit risky if she pulls out too much. Besides, the Great Fairy gets mana from her spring, so when she extracts all that energy, she'll be the one holding to much and you don't want to know what happens then." The dragon then continued to mumble about overactive psychos after that.

Link groaned at that. "I definitely can't live with Navi when she's in that state." Navi still seemed to be doing some sort of a jig on the ground.

"Well, you could always go to the Great Deku Tree, all Fairies respect him greatly and he is the most knowledgeable on subjects of nature. He should be able to help, though I can't guarantee that his help would be useful. My suggestion is just to weather those four weeks in quiet despair. It's definitely the safest, but not the healthiest." Volvagia decided not to mutter the 'for you' attachment to the end of that sentence. 

Link brightened considerably at that. "Well, thanks for your help. It's a shame my sword had to break, but I'll go bring Navi to the Great Deku Tree. Anything is better than this." He said sardonically, pointing to Navi who brought her dance into the air.

"Well Navi?" he asked, calling her over. "Shall we go get Reza and Malik or shall we cure you first?" The way Navi drunkenly drooped on his shoulder and raised one finger made him guess her answer was the former. "Yeah, we might as well, and Epona might want to see Malon again. How convenient that Lon-Lon Ranch is in the centre of Hyrule Fields. After that, I guess I can show them around Termina a bit."

Packing up whatever meagre items he brought with him, Link profusely thanked Volvagia and the Great Fairy before heading off, Navi trying to tap dance on the uneven surface of his cap.

*

'I'll be coming to pick you guys up in a few days time, so finish all your preparations and uncompleted business if you have them. In the mean time, enjoy!

-Link'

Malik jumped with joy at that message. No more experimenting children! No more scowling adults! No more cranky sisters! No more sand! Link's coming back! 

Reza rolled her eyes at Malik's antics. After giving him a back massage (with the claws), she had left him alone, but he was busy trying to fix those heavy bruises on his back. He was grateful the claws were blunt at least otherwise she would have ripped off a lot of skin.   

She couldn't blame him though. As the only male, he was probably the sole target of many women that felt he was as low as dirt and as a Sheikah that made it worse. She wasn't too surprised when a few Gerudo children had crowded around to watch her excruciating display of near torture with morbid fascination before they tried to imitate what she had done with their nails on each other.

Her punishment for that was pretty simple. Stand guard of Malik and make sure you don't hurt him while there are children around to watch. Much to the disappointment to the said children, she had complied to the order, but so far had not yet hurt him for any affront he might have made. 

After doing that interesting display, Malik dropped back down on the bed he had been resting on, the biting medicine she had offered for the bruises kicking in as it practically scorched his back. It was all herbal and 'that which does not kill you only make you stronger'. It had been said by a well known traveller long ago, and if you added that Reza thought Malik was a bit too wimpy and not strong enough, it could be almost be justified.

Well, _almost justified. She had added certain herbal additions from weak poisoned plants to make the medicine very irritable as well as feel more like fire than anything else. Those mild chemicals would really cause a small amount of havoc if they ever entered his bloodstream, but the way she saw it, he'll grow more resistant to them after a while. _

No harm done, just more improvement. So while she can, she might as well slip in some itching drugs into his food before Link came to visit them; she wanted to have a little bit of fun but Link won't be happy if he found Malik a bit subdued when he came around.

*

Link was presently enjoying the scenery presented to him as he lay on the lush green grass and stared into the crystal clear sky. Epona was enjoying herself as she fed on the said grass near Link and Navi...

...Navi was busy learning how to do the tango. 

Link didn't particularly care about that, though. One more day of riding and he'll reach the Ranch, and from there he'll be able to head off to the Desert. He was sure that Epona would be happy to visit Malon again.

Life was good. He had enough supplies to last for a direct trip to the Gerudo Fortress despite that being on the opposite side of the map, Epona was happy with what she had and was about to meet her childhood friend, Navi was... in good spirits, and he himself couldn't ask for any better companions. A gentle smile flickered on his face as a breeze drifted by, rustling the grasses. The clouds hovered in their vague forms making a plethora of shape-shifting images in the sky. Why, he could even see what looked like a razor disc cloud above him look like it was rotate on its spot. It definitely looked like that one would rain soon, considering its contrasting black shading compared to all the other white ones.

Wait a minute, that cloud was rotating, and Link could see small flecks of black lightning arc between one end of a spiky edge to another, and...

...and Link was right underneath the cloud.

With a muffled curse Link got up and scrambled to his feet, knocking down Navi as she had been trying to creep up on his from his shirt. He managed to get away from where he was in time as a dark lance of lightning struck where he previously occupied, scorching the ground and withering away. Link felt slightly sick from the vibes the air it coursed through gave off. It distinctly reminded him of those Dark Angels he had once fought.

He wasn't given much time to consider the implications of such a connection as he had to dodge another bolt of black lightning as the cloud seemed hell bent towards striking him down. Link frowned at that close miss and ran over to Epona. While it may not have been a good idea to get her involved as a lightning bolt could kill them both in a single shot, he needed her extra speed in hopes he could outrun the cloud into a cluster of trees where hopefully the laws of physics would take effect.

Giving a sharp whistle, he attracted her attention and running erratically to avoid the incoming lightning bolt; he quickly got onto her saddle and got her running as fast as she could.

Link was no genius, but he knew that shooting an arrow into a cloud would do very little, but that was all he could do. It proved disastrous when he did so, for the arrow was returned as well as a seven second long chain of lightning. Link frowned slightly at that, though inwardly he was grateful Epona was not so frightened as to run off anywhere.

Deciding that self preservation was in order, Link guided Epona towards a nearby forest and sure enough, the cloud followed. Frantically he rode Epona in the most undecipherable footstep pattern to knock off the lightning bolts from actually hitting, but the cloud seemed to be anticipating his movements and each strike to the ground was a few feet closer to him than the last one.

Daring to look up, Link saw two Dark Angels standing on top of the cloud, watching him imperiously. Link saw one turn its head towards the centre of the cloud and it appeared that there was another Dark Angel manning it because a lightning bolt came down, splintering the tree he had rode past.

'Heh, it's nice to know I'm a worthy challenge for them to use such weaponry,' Link thought as he pushed Epona further to reach the forest, 'but do they have to use siege weapons?' The only answer he got to that question was another lightning bolt to a nearby tree.

He was about to go further when an arrow flew past his ear. Startled, he got Epona to move another direction. Looking at where the arrow came from he could see a guy all in black in the forest he intended to hide in armed with a crossbow, and by the glint of a three bolts near that guy, Link could guess that the person was not alone.

"Farore!" he swore, having to pick another clump of trees to hide from the incoming lightning, "they got archers too?" 

He had a cloud trying to snipe at him from above; he had some Dark Archers trying to snipe at him from behind and to further his complications he had a mortar engine in front of him trying to blast him to kingdom come and from the heavy bolts crashing into the ground, one or two ballistae units on the hills trying to shoot him down.. It was a great surprise that Epona was still avoiding all that fire.

Link scowled deeply. Just how by the Goddesses was he supposed to get out of this mess? The sight of Dark Knights in the distance lowered his hope of getting out cleanly further.

*

After incredibly bad indigestion that went straight after a bout of an extremely bad case of itches, Malik decided that he'll meet up with him on the way. And because they always travelled in a party, he had to bring Reza along, who wasn't entirely keen on leaving. Well, that's what he thought when she levelled her swords at his throat and threatened to feed his liver to any rampant monster if he dared order her. But nonetheless, she had agreed towards going towards Link instead of waiting. However, right now Reza was carrying out his punishment for ordering her.

Now, if you keep in mind, Reza isn't particularly... cruel, nor is she evil in the sense that she enjoys the demise of others. In fact, among the Gerudo folk, she's quite decent among others and doesn't entirely hold grudges. She wouldn't overreact either, so the punishment she was serving was not exactly torturous. One could consider it a back massage of sorts if you looked at it in that point of view.

"Ow! Ow! Stone! Ouch! Wait, are we approaching a dung blob? Help! I give up! I plead mercy!" Malik cried.

... Well, she doesn't enjoy the demise of others of her folk, and she's decent among her people. Perhaps she was just overreacting because it was Malik she was punishing. 

The punishment was pretty simple. His legs were tied by a rope that connected to his horse that was dragging him alone. Along his back there were varying length stilts attached so that the ride would be extra bumpy even of flat ground. And his head was to drag along the ground or else spend a lot of energy keeping his neck straight. And Reza decided to lead his horse right through a rabbit warren, complete with excrement.

Malik groaned as he hoped waste wouldn't stick to his hair. Although he wasn't a person who spent a lot of time caring about his looks, he, like everybody else, didn't like animal waste in his hair or anywhere else. Reza paused in thought. Maybe she was being a bit harsh to him for such a simple thing. It isn't particularly nice to prolong a person's suffering. So her answer was...

"No." 

*

Epona whinnied as she frantically tried to dodge a ballista bolt as well as a lightning one and soon after three crossbow bolts. She didn't even need Link's command to change direction at the incoming explosive. In her mind, she was starting to believe that Link had made his fare share of people who didn't like him, but this time he made one extremely powerful person try and hunt them down through these means. She winced slightly at the heat given out by the newest lightning bolt. 

Rock, weed, ditch, fence, Epona had to jump them all. There was no time for error and definitely no time for slowing down. For a while she had been told to run in an unpredictable pattern, but looking at the land shown, it was obvious they were making no progress anywhere. She could understand Link's reasoning for not daring to progress any further in any of the directions – to do so would be to bring them closer to either that explosion propelling thing, those two big arrow shooting things or those group of armed men. But she knew he'll have to make a run for it soon – those frightening black armoured people on black horses were getting closer.

Link wasn't really paying attention to the ground, trusting Epona to take care of any obstacles in their way. He was paying nearly all his attention on the launched bolts and explosives, praying that one of those nearby Dark Knights would be impaled by friendly fire. Unfortunately, all of them – siege units, bowmen and cavalry alike – seemed to share a link because all of them knew where to step to avoid the taste of death. Link remembered his fight against the Dark Knights, a fight he definitely wouldn't have been able to win if Reza and Malik weren't there. This time, he had more of them on his tail and cooperative ranged units helping as well, not getting in each other's ways. 

His thoughts were cut short when Epona gave a whinny of surprise and fell.

*

In the end, Reza allowed Malik back onto his horse again, though didn't feel like helping him brush out all the rabbit droppings from his hair. Malik was quietly plotting revenge, giving an angry scowl to an unconcerned Reza now and then. Like her punishments, his were along the lines of humiliation than real harm, though a bit of pain now and there wouldn't really hurt (no pun intended). Maybe hiding her clothes in different places each time before she bathed, he wondered. She'll find it eventually, but will feel a bit embarrassed to have been searching for them in the first place.

Agreeing on that idea, he was about to commence on how we will go on at that before thinking a bit deeper about it. Reza would probably suspect something at the second try, and would definitely believe it was him changing around where her clothes were. By that time she would most likely have pounded him flat into the ground and set up another form of torture as punishment.

The Gerudo sure have a lot of ways to hurt people, Malik thought and delving a bit deeper into some of the ways that he already knew.

Reza snorted and rolled her eyes. Watching Malik, it was incredibly amusing to see him frowning and introspective to happy, before becoming introspective and frowning again, returning to an introspective state again. Bah, he's weird.

*

It took Link a while to regain his bearings, but it seemed that Epona fell into a ditch. For it to be able to fit him and Epona nicely, it had to be an incredibly big ditch. The thing that interested him the most was that there were three branches from this ditch leading to elsewhere. 

Link was quick to take stock of the situation and hid Epona in one of those tunnels along with Navi. After that, he made an incredibly big show of going into another tunnel, scuffling the ground with foot prints to make it obvious he was going that direction. With that done, there was nothing more for him to do other than explore.

Walking through the tunnel silently, Link quickly took stock of all the good places to ambush anyone who'll follow him through the darkness. Hearing a noise behind him, he hid in a tiny corner and waited for whoever it was to pass. The Dark Archer was completely unaware of where Link was, staring right ahead instead of examining his surroundings. Link quickly took advantage of that, lunging out to grab hold of its neck, charging mana into his hands to make his throttling hold more deadly. Soon after it had vanished, Link had to go scout for another ambush area in case it relayed a message back on his way of attack.

Link smiled slightly. Now skills had very little meaning. With the close corridors and low roof, he wouldn't be able to pull out any fancy foot work or sword skills – not that he could, with a broken sword and all. It all relied on tactics, picking on them one by one and leading them deeper into a maze they do not know of.

A Dark Knight followed, but without a horse to rely upon, he was easily taken care of. As it appeared within Link's vision, he shoulder rammed it hard in the chest, knocking it down. Allowing the weight of its own armour to tie it down longer than without, Link allowed the lingering mana from his previous ambush to charge up his hands and struck the jugular vein hard, hewing the neck into two.

Doing a mental count, Link believed that he had around forty to fifty more to fight. While in these corridors it'll be a piece of cake to take them down one by one, it will take quite a while.

*

Reza and Malik were a bit worried about where Link was. Right now, they were resting in Lon-Lon Ranch, awaiting Link's arrival. It had been three days since they left the Fortress, four if you included the day that they got his letter. That meant he had been out and about for five to six days, but it seemed that he hadn't reached the Ranch yet.

Absently Malon laid their meals before them before sitting down. "Are you sure Link should have came by here?" A nod was her only agreement. "I'm not sure – maybe he took a different path, because we haven't seen him near our farm over late. However, Ingo had been spotting some strange things, and from his claims they're far stranger than the previous Dark Copies we fought before."

Reza stopped eating her eggs for a moment to listen. Growling slightly, she bopped Malik lightly at his neck to stop him from his loud gobbling. "Oh? What did he say he saw?"

Malon shuddered at the thought. "What he said would have been hard to believe if I had not seen them the next time round. What I saw were men, as black as the Dark Copies and soulless eyes, they seemed to be patrolling around our Ranch. They wore armour as thick as anything and as dark as night, as with their horses. The horses... it looked like they were mad, driven insane from the continued presence of those dark men, and all their hides were black as well. It looked like they had been caught in a purgatory, being tormented all the time by their dark masters, yet they seemed to answer those soulless people's calls. Yesterday I saw all of them left, armed with spears and shields and the horses protected by battle armour. I thought they were part of some strange army, fighting another army, but that group was too small for such thing."

Malik paused at that description. "That sounded like a group of Dark Knights. We fought them before, and from what I remember it was very hard, considering that their roams struck fear into anything nearby. Perhaps they weren't fighting another army, but a smaller group. Maybe they were hunting something."

Reza paused at that thought. "Or someone."

Malon stared wide-eyed at the implications. She couldn't believe that it was obvious that it was Link being hunted, yet those two seemed totally relaxed at eating their meal. In fact, they didn't seem to give a thought towards the idea that Link was already dead.

"Shouldn't you two be helping him? I mean, there were around fifty of them, and they're just targeting one guy."  

"Link's resourceful; he'll find a way out." Reza said nonchalantly, returning to eating her meal. Malon could only stare. Link was supposed to fight off fifty of those Knights that reeked with evil, without help?

She abruptly stood up. "I'm going to find him."

Malik paused in his meal to question at her. "Can you fight well? From what I remember, those Knights were extremely powerful, if a bit disorganised. They got some weird protection and weapons don't really dent their armour. The best way to fight them was to trample them down with the horse. Hey, speaking of that, does this place supply armour for horses?"

Malon frowned lightly, but was still adamant to her cause. "Well, I'm definitely not up to par against the Gerudo folk and don't have the stealth of the Sheikah, and Link definitely is better than me, but I can fight. I don't think my father actually makes armour for horses, and I don't want to endanger them. But if Link is still out there, he most certainly needs all the help he can get!" She stood firmly, daring either of them to challenge her.

Reza sighed. "To go out and fight them is suicide, especially if you don't have any armour. If you say this place doesn't give armour for horses, I highly doubt it'll supply armour for people. From the last time we fought together here, you worked with a quarterstaff, and that isn't really the best to fight on horseback, much less against spears. Just leave Link to fight them off, he'll come back later."

Malon wringed her hands in the air with discontent before storming out. Malik finished his meal quickly (accidentally splattering Reza with a bit of food), and hurried after their host. Reza, grumbling, wiped that bit of egg off her cheek and chased after Malik.

When she got out she found an unsuccessful Malik trying to pull back a horse that was being loaded with supplies. Looking over the mount's back, she could see that it was Malon doing the packing, loading a few bags with food and carrying her staff with her.

Malik, who was still tugging at the reins to make it head back, fell down when the horse budged.

"You're pathetic, Malik. If she wants to go, let her go. You're too light to be able to stop her, anyway." Reza shook her head, lifting him up by the scruff of his neck.

"But she'll get slaughtered against such opposition!"

"I never said let her go alone, you dimwit." 

He blinked at that thought. Maybe...

"But _we'll get slaughtered against such opposition!"_

She sighed, shaking her head (and Malik) a couple of times. This might take a while.

*

Link sneezed, but immediately covered it up. No point allowing them to know his exact position, only the general gist of it. He had been holed up in these Goddess forsaken tunnels for slightly more than a day and was starving, cold and in great need of sleep. The only good thing that came out of it was that he managed to kill thirty seven of those Dark Copies after him, but he still believed he had a few more to fight.

Another good thing was that he managed to get Epona out of here, and right now she probably was roaming the Field eating grass. What he'd do for a bit of food that's not bread right now, for that was all he could take from his pack before releasing Epona.

Sitting in the end of the very long corridor, he waited for someone to show up. Soon enough, a Knight appeared and faster than anyone could comprehend it had a hookshot tip stuck in its head, reeling it closer to Link who had his shield out.

*WHAM* 

All in all, Link believed this was becoming good practice to strengthen his right arm. He doubted that anyone could live with a broken neck, even if that person was composed of shadow.

His position was probably the best one he found, but he had already used this ambush spot four times, and he doubted that they will fall for the same trick one more time. Getting up, he scuttled over to another area to fight them off. At least he learned a few things under these tunnels.

One of those things was an altered form of Farore's Wind. He'll drop a glowing point that soon fades out of vision, but it won't be for teleportation. Instead, it replicated at as a sensor, so he'll know if someone passed it. Unfortunately, he could only release one at a time, the concentration for more too complicated, and it only sensed, not saw. Pretty useless, Link had to admit, but in the confines of these tunnels it was the perfect awareness tool.

Placing a sensor down, he placed a warp point just a few feet behind it. The idea was that once the sensor picked up motion, he'll teleport right behind the Dark Copy and go for a nice, clean kill. That was the theory, anyway.

*

After the effects of sheer will, reason and common sense started to filter into Malon's mind. She wanted to find Link, true, but where to start? The Fields of Hyrule were vast, incredibly so, and they had agreed that he was somewhere in between Death Mountain and her Ranch. Somewhere being the key term, because they did not know where.

She sighed, pushing her hair away from her face as she cast her gaze across the plains. A dejected sound came from her lips as she got her horse to tread on.

"I told you it was a stupid idea, but _no_, you females have to stick together, don't you? Now we're checking for one guy – ONE guy – in the middle of nowhere, with no absolute idea where he is! We don't even have any clues to where Link is! You might as well search for an ant in a termite's nest; it'll definitely be much quicker! And knowing Link and what's after him, much less painful!"

Malon had to agree with his reasoning. They had no idea where he was and no clue to where he might have been. Closing her eyes, she whispered a silent prayer to the Goddesses for a sign pointing towards Link.

The sign arrived, bowling Malik over.

Malik, who had gotten off his horse to refill his water container, heard a whinny in the distance. Getting up from his crouching position, he squinted slightly to see what made that noise. In the distance, the form of a horse appeared, seemingly heading for him at great speed.

It took quite a while before the 'heading for him at great speed' part reached his brain. Cursing slightly, he rushed away from the horse's trajectory, but not before being struck by Epona's hoof, sending him flying towards the group and landing face first.

His abrupt flight had naturally caught Reza and Malon's attention, so therefore they also saw Epona as well.

Where Malon thanked the heavens, Malik damned the ground.

"That's Link's horse, isn't it?" Reza said, noticing the unique streak of white hair for a mane instead of brown or black. Also were the distinct empty supply bags on her back. Malon didn't waste time answering the question, choosing instead for the horse to lead them to Link.

With a shout to Malik to hurry up (a groan was the reply), they followed Epona's retreating back, hopefully towards where Link was.

Malik tried a prayer to the heavens, requesting a safe journey towards where Link was without any danger in the way.

A ballista bolt was his answer.

With a curse, the group scattered to the sides, just in time to avoid the next one that smashed into a jutting rock with a loud crash, cracking the rock into pieces. 

Ouch, that looked dangerous.

Epona regardless of the threat led them forward, swerving to the left and right occasionally to avoid the incoming missiles. 

Malon visibly cringed as she could see the bolts soar through the sky before landing dangerously close to them. It was rather clear that someone had deigned them to death and was taking the means to accomplish it. Since Malon hadn't been through as many life/death situations as her companions and they were trying to fight an enemy they could not even see, let alone reach, it was understandable why she was so frightened.

Reza growled lightly as she was forced to ride over to the left to avoid a shot taken at her. At times like these she wished she had a shield because with the large surface area it'll be easy to block the bolts instead of deflecting them with her scimitars. Looking at a little ditch, she decided that it'll provide ample cover against the bolts. Signalling to Malik, he nodded a flipped on a mask of urgency to get the horses' attention. At that they all headed for the cover.

*

Chewing on a piece of bread, Link outwardly looked calm. Inwardly he was panicking like crazy. If what he knew was correct, he had slain everything but the Dark Angels. The last time he fought them he won against the first one through surprise tactics and the second by fusing with Navi (Farore didn't really seem to give a clear answer on how that worked). Right now he had by his knowledge two of them hunting him down, both armed with the information on how he ambushed everyone else. He was also unarmed in a sense – Navi seemed to be in a drunken state and wouldn't be able to help right now, all the arrows he had collected back were too blunt from impact to hurt anymore, his sword was in two separate pieces and his hookshot is far too slow to hit them. All he had to rely on was his own luck, skill and mental and physical discipline. 

Link laughed lightly at that thought, hacking slightly when choking on the bread. It was a tough call to fight these Dark Angels with Reza's distraction and fusion Navi's near unrestrained application of magic. Now all he had to resort to was his fists and magic, and hopefully his new fancy shoulder guards. So far they just kept sucking up his mana and making him tolerant to magical fire, but hopefully they'll do something else. Otherwise he'll have a big mess on his hands.

Link never got the time to pop the last bit of bread into his mouth for at the entrance of the tunnel was not just one Dark Angel but three of them. All armed with strange visors and carrying around oddly formed long swords that had a nasty edge to them.

'Oh crud' his mind whispered. 'Run!' his body screamed.

The screaming won out.

A/N: Finally! After waiting god knows how long for this thing, you guys finally get it! Admittedly, I believe I only get 4 constant people reading it, but it's not worth abandoning this thing due to lack of popularity – after all, this thing is meant to be for my own enjoyment above everyone else. A little fame couldn't hurt though. :-P

Looking at it, I believe it is time to review to my reviewers. I never did, but hey – now's a good time to start.

Dude13: Ah... romance isn't really my strongest subject, considering that I'm more of an action writer than anything else. To bring them together will really mess up my made up plans, but I could always improvise. For now, whenever they're in contact, I'll leave a few hints if possible.

Lunatic Pandora1: Thanks for the comment; I just made that thing up to fill up the page, believe it or not. I guess character development comes after that though. I didn't accomplish the 'update soon' part, but I updated at least. Again, thanks for reviewing.

H7: Yeah, we all know the drill – update when demanded. You as a prospering writer should know this more than I do. Criticisms are welcome as well as compliments, so don't mind telling me where I could improve.

Now, for the legal rights of everything else – that 'traveller' who said the phrase of Reza's is actually Warriv from Diablo II. It's a nice phrase and does make a lot of sense – except for when you lose a limb.


	16. Killing through blood

Chapter 16:Killing through blood.

Now that Link had gotten a bit of distance in between the three Dark Angels, his mind had started to filter through all possible advantages and restrictions he might have.

"Okay," He murmured to himself, never mind about speaking quietly – they already were running (floating?) after him, "because of the tunnel walls, they can't really use those swords – not enough space for that. They can't fly freely either, meaning that their wings are a hindrance. However, they can still stab with those swords of theirs, and they still outnumber me. So what can I do?" He had to stop thinking for a while to pour more energy into running.

Looking back for a bit, Link could see that the Dark Angels weren't that far back as he imagined. Even with their onyx black skin (and hair, and swords, and clothes...) he could see a faint touch of a smirk on the leader's faces, as it had enough emotion to feel amusement at his sorry plight. Its cold, calculating eyes tracked his movements, seemingly not wanting to take the extra effort to move out of this cat and mouse chase, just corner him or until he makes a mistake.

Link didn't have much time to catalogue that, however, as just as he turned a corner an arrow lanced right through the rock behind him. 

"Farore!" he cursed. There were only three of them. There were no archers. There definitely were no bows, only three big and sharp long swords. That meant that one of them had hidden a bow.

At times like this Link wished that his Fierce Deity form wasn't so big. As Link grew, so did the size of what the mask unleashed. When he was a little ten year old Fierce Link was the size of seventeen year old him, but when he had fought Shikaku, Fierce Link was half a foot taller than before. Scowling slightly, Link knew that the only advantage he would get was a bit more immunity to magic, but it is a bit too risky staying in that form for too long for such few bonuses. After all, he may bang his head against the ceiling (comparing it to when he would become Fierce Link, it looked awfully low now), he can't hack them away with the complimentary broadsword, and he didn't learn how to fire those Shadow blades without swinging the sword either. The Dark Angels were probably too independent for him to try and scramble their connections with their leader.

His thinking was cut short as another arrow was shot, but this time it hit sharply below his shoulder. Link cursed as he tumbled, gripping where the arrow had been. Scrambling on his knees, he was wondering where the arrow went after hitting him. It was liked it dissolved...

He had to drop down again to avoid another arrow, and rolling around Link was given a clear view of who had shot the arrow. It was the smirking leader again; except for a long sword it now had a bow.

'Wonderful. They can even change their weapon's form.'

Scrambling back to hit feet, Link ran.

*

Malon whispered a silent prayer as they huddled beneath the alcove, bolts raining upon their withering shelter. To leave for another hiding spot meant that they'll be wide in the open, but to stay meant that their defensive barrier would break soon, leaving them in the open again. 

"Damn it! Where do they get all those arrows from, anyway?" Malik grounded out, giving back some pointless return fire occasionally. 

"They're called bolts, idiot. And stop wasting your knives like that." Reza grumbled, watching with detached amusement on how the bolts would shatter what they hit then disappear into the air. She was grateful the horses were smart enough to stay under the shelter, but did seem to share the same worries as Malon of the shelter being whittled away.

Surveying her companions, slight disappointment settled at their weaknesses yet she could not blame them for it. Malon had huddled into a small corner in hoping the claustrophobic walls would supply more protection, reciting prayers taught to her when young. She wasn't a veteran of combat, nor was she ever exposed to any of it, so how could you blame a person for being afraid? She shared the same primal fears of those that were superior and out of your reach, and with bolts whizzing by, whoever that was shooting was definitely out of their reach.

Malik was still adamant to his counterattacks. He knew that the knives would never fly far enough, but still he tried. The only thing fuelling was hope, and Reza could never blame anyone for hoping. All Malik was probably trying to do was to crush the thought of being hopeless prey by fighting back, though it didn't seem to be a very effective form of fighting. 

She sighed at that. It looks like it would only be her that would be in the right condition to think of something, unless someone answers Malon's prayers or Malik's tactics start working.

"... by the mercy of our Goddesses, extend the range of safety to encompass our undeserving bodies..." Malon uttered, before stopping and thinking.

"Range!" Malon cried.

The off topic word managed to grab Malik's attention, at least.

"Those things have a minimum range, right? If we can get close enough to one of them, it can't shoot us! The other one will have to risk hitting the one we're near if it tries to target us as well!" 

Reza thought about that. There were a few flaws in that plan, like maybe the other one didn't care what it hits and those arming the ballista being armed themselves, but it would be a lot easier to fight an opponent they can see.

Nodding in agreement, they tried to get onto their mounts for the mad dash.

*

Link's eyes were travelling wildly. Each time he tried to compose his thoughts something seemed to smash into his brain and make them disjointed again. So for the time being he was running on simple instinct alone, trying to get away from the three Dark Angels.

He rushed by rock and dirt, eyes flailing in hopes of finding another path he could take. 

'Run anywhere! Run away! More distance than them!' His mind screamed, only simple thoughts managing to pass by that unwanted filter. Anything more complex was shattered into incoherent thoughts that made no sense.

Thankfully, his years of fighting had ingrained some techniques into his brain, and quickly he pivoted on his foot and raised his shield, just fast enough to block impalement. With a desperate gleam in his eyes, he bashed the sword out of the way with his shield and forcefully kicked the Dark Angel's chest, sending it tumbling before running away again. 

Again he tried to think, but it was broken down into key words only.

'Arrow... dissolved... shadow... warning... Farore...'

Nonetheless, he logged that into the back of his mind and continued running. The only problem with that was he couldn't run no more.

With a choke he fell onto the floor, Eyes wide with confusion and pain as black lightning rippled his body again. Each scream of pain of his came out as a strangled cough, his body demanding oxygen as the spasms kept forcing all air out. Desperately he clawed the ground ahead of him, trying to find enough traction to keep on moving, as far away as he could from those Dark Angels. The pain that racked his body didn't seem to cooperate, lancing out in heavy bolts whenever he moved.

It was in the large dose of pains did a consistent thought manage to pass through his brain. 

'I think I might die.'

*

'They're getting desperate,' Reza noted, realising that the second siege engine had started to pick up its pace, firing in a quicker rhythm and the one they were heading to was firing like crazy. Malon's idea seemed to have worked just now – when they were closing in on one of the two, the other didn't dare fire. But now it seemed to not care anymore, and was shooting rapidly again.

At least they were sacrificing accuracy for quantity, for now rarely did a bolt get within two metres of them, just littering the grounds before dissipating. 

Epona again was the one leading, even though she was the horse without the rider. But instead of swerving left and right like before, she just pumped on ahead, closing the distance in between them and their destination as quickly as possible. How Malon managed to communicate with the horse, Reza will never understand. Link sure was lucky to get such a smart and strong horse, that's for sure.

It was a matter of seconds before they ascended the hill and before anyone could do anything, Epona had bum rushed the two Dark Archers manning the ballista, pounding her entire weight onto their bodies until they disappeared. In her distant memory, Reza remembered asking Link how he had trained Epona so well that she pretty much had skin of stone. What she got for an answer was confusing, with him mumbling about Ikana Canyon, Bombchu infestations and collisions. 

"Okay," Malik said after a long pause, "we got the ballista. We got the bolts. We got two dead enemies. Now what do we do?"

Reza chuckled lightly at a thought before loading one bolt into the engine. "Does anyone know how to operate this thing?"

*

The Dark Angels are too close.

The Dark Angels are already here.

The Dark Angels are going to kill me.

Link screamed as he wildly swung his arms around, trying vainly to push back the three from getting any closer. 

It was at this time that a speech Saria had told him came to mind.

'What separates man from beast and monster? What is it that changes the way we live from the animalistic form of survival to smarter forms of intelligence? The Goddesses have granted us life, form and purpose, but it is up to our means to serve the purpose given. I believe it is simply because of one word: why. Why do we need light, food and water? Why do we need a person to play with and protect? Why can't we leave the forest? It is not my place to tell you the answers to the questions you may create, but be assured that throughout your life, reaching the goal the Goddesses wish of you, keep asking that question: why? And to the question why we need to keep on asking why? I'll leave that one for you to find out.'

Link had years and years of experience in his body, so why is it that he's acting like he knows nothing about fighting?

As his brain processed the previous occurrences, it finally hit the jackpot.

It was because of the arrow.

Farore had told him that when Dark Saria had managed to cut him, it had made him different. The must have been made of the same stuff as Dark Saria's sword, and had gotten a cleaner strike in. It didn't dissolve into the air either.

It dissolved into him.

Link managed to stop his mad scrabbling to roll away from an incoming stab and get onto his feet to run. 

'Trust Saria to help me when I can't help myself,' Link smiled lightly at that thought.

Link didn't know how well the arrow got into him, but he did know one thing: get the infected blood out.

It would be best to get as far away as possible then.

*

It appeared that Malik was more of a technician than everyone else. Using skills no one knew where he got them, he managed to figure out how to change the angle and aim of the ballista, as well as choose in between four different amounts of strength to supply each shot. 

Malon's idea on how to fight with it sounded good, but didn't work. What she hoped was to just aim slightly above the enemy ballista (who hadn't returned any fire yet) and shoot a bolt at full strength in hopes of lancing the opponents. The problem with that was that they found out what the big panels in the front were for.

So now they were just trying to fire over the panel and let it fall onto the controls, but with the limitation of four different amounts of power given, it all resulted in choosing the correct angle with 70 different ones of choice, they were in for a lot of experimenting.

"I say this is pointless! While we're here, Link could be in a lot of trouble wherever he is! By the time we manage to hit the other ballista, he might already be in a life-death battle himself!" Malon cried as she looked around, very conscious of the time they were taking to actually hit the other one.

Malik growled at the machine, wearing thick leather gloves to operate it. Reza also wore the same type of gloves, though while she didn't like how they looked, she had to agree with their purposes. As Malik had first discovered, touching the weaponry for too long starts to poison your hands, so they had to wear as much protection as possible. What Link did with such big gloves in his rucksack Reza would probably never know.

*

Link winced as he used a large needle to prick his shoulder, allowing discoloured blood loose onto the ground. Very carefully he waited for the pouring blood to start becoming red, allowing him to stop bleeding himself – after all, no point dying of excessive blood loss. 

Even if he didn't die from it, when he finished, Link did feel extremely drained and dizzy. Slumping onto the ground and into the puddle of poisoned blood, Link knew he still needed to keep on running.

Grimacing, he got ready to put on one of the shape-shifting masks.

A controlled scream of pain later, Link stood up, hopping over the puddle and hurrying to make at the best speed of this form (which, admittedly, wasn't very fast considering his size).

Link would have smiled if the face allowed him to.

Hopefully none of them would suspect hunting a Deku Scrub.

Despite how weak this form was, Link found being in Deku form one of his most favoured shape shifting abilities. Able to fly for a while, hop across water for a while and hide and get nutrients inside a flower was one of the neatest things he could get. Link could clearly remember being very tired, so he drilled into a flower next to a river bank and overnight was in perfect condition again.

 The bubble ability was laughable though. It cost a bit of energy to make one decent sized one at first, and they were so inaccurate. The other attack he had was not much of an attack either, merely just spinning around and around, though it was perfect against large clusters of weak enemies.

Getting out of his thoughts, Link ran (wobbled?) as fast as the body allowed. Providing he managed to find a spot to bury in, he may be able to ambush at least one of the Dark Angels with his flying attack. That move could lift floors; it surely should be able to at least break legs.

*

"BINGO!" Malik cried at their successful hit. "Oh yeah, oh yeah, who's your daddy, who's your daddy!" 

Reza stared. Malon had the courtesy to only look at him like he was mad.

He slumped at their expressions. "No one understands my mind nowadays."

Reza shook her head in disbelief. "Quite frankly, I'm not sure there's much of it to understand."

Malon giggled slightly at that, but soon returned to the matter at hand. "Now that we got rid of them, I think it's time we tried to find Link."

Reza nodded. "Sure. But first, let me examine something here."

"You work too much." Malik commented, watching her as she studied the ground and equipment with a focussed eye.

"And you work too little." Reza automatically retorted, but didn't remove her gaze from the ground. 

Deciding to block off a possible argument, Malon asked, "What are you trying to find out? There's nothing there but a few scorch marks and bits of metal."

"That's the point. There are ONLY scorch marks and bits of metal. We know that the burns are from those Dark Copies evaporating, but what are those bits of metal? I also remember from fighting the Dark Knights before with Malik and Link, using the horses to fight was the best way to kill them quickly, and Epona was the one who killed them just now. It was a lot harder for us to kill the Dark Copies in your Ranch hand to hand, but the horses could easily wipe the floor with them."

Malon's eyes widened slightly at that. "Then that means..."

Reza looked up that time and smiled slightly. "These Dark Copies are weak to something."

Malik frowned. "But just like them and light, they'll get immune to it soon."

She sighed and nodded, but resumed studying the ground. "They will, but we better exploit it now."

*

Death.

It's a questionable theory, isn't it?

When your mortal life expires, do you really die?

Do you transcend into another realm of existence?

Do you meet the Guardian where you face your judgement of karma?

Do you meet the Goddesses and face reincarnation, returning you back to the mortal coil?

Whatever 'death' was, Link was sure that for now, he was safe from it.

His idea of the Dark Angels only searching for a Hylian form proved correct. A metre away from the place he buried himself were two out of the three, and while they were giving off vibes that needed all his concentration to prevent himself from running in fear, he could tell that they weren't designated for battle.

Either that or they were laying some complicated trap.

Hopefully it wasn't the latter.

Hopefully.

Biding his time, Link waited for them to leave. His previous idea of fighting three Dark Angels – one of them even – in this form seemed preposterous now. This form wasn't meant for fighting, it was meant for running away. So unless he changed into a more battle-hardened figure, he would have to run.

If it wasn't for the fact that the Deku mouth wasn't exactly built for common speech, and that he didn't want to be noticed, Link would have shouted at them to leave.

The key to this different form of fighting was patience.

All Link had to do was outwait them.

And if he had it his way, Link would prefer to outlast them as well.

*

Zelda was in her room, studying relentlessly on a pointless topic of how ice caps on mountains develop and erode. Briefly she paused to think what this had to do with her ruling Hyrule, but shrugged it down. It probably was as important as the subject of a mushroom's life cycle.

Feeling that she deserved a break from this incredibly useless torment, she walked over to the window. Opening it, Zelda allowed a small smile to flicker across her face as the breeze caressed her face, gently pushing her golden locks of hair back.

'Lucky Link,' she thought, casting her gaze across the gardens below, 'he gets to travel around and enjoy nature to its optimum. Not caged in, he was granted a free roam of the lands, held only by the responsibilities of his person. She, on the other hand, was sealed within an embroidered prison, locked from the fields outside and feeling the ominous chains of duty that will bind her mind to the country. 

Sighing, she returned back to her work, finishing that topic and started one about the nerve endings in fingernails. Whatever Link was doing had to have been more interesting that this.

*

One could call what he was doing 'interesting'. After he was certain that the Dark Angels left no traps, he quickly waddled across the tunnel – only to fall onto his face when he realised they left a much simpler trap than his imaginations of explosives, poison needles and shadow fire turrets – simply just reorganising the rocks on the ground to make him trip.

'Well, two can play at that game,' Link thought maliciously, rigging the tiny little cabbage bomb he had improvised upon. In his deku form, all he had to do was infuse a bit of mana into some folded up leaves and blow his bubble onto it, so that when someone broke the leaves by stepping on it or throwing it aside, the magic will cause the leaves to start burning, alighting the magic in the water and setting that too on fire.

The only problem with that simply sophisticated system was that it only had a damage radius of not even half a metre, and even then it was so weak that a deku scrub could stand on it and only agonise over it, but not die. However, that was where his Goron form came in.

Directly underneath each of his affectionately named cabbage bombs (there were six of them in total), were the extremely heavy-duty explosives that came with the package of Goron strength. It had taken a while and a lot of close shaves, but Link managed to carefully saw off the wick until it was barely possible to be seen above the rim. With extremely careful accuracy he dug a small hole for the kegs (without setting them off), covered them nicely with a layer of soil then putting the smaller cabbage bombs on top, without disturbing the leaves of those. It was a dangerous task, as the Deku form had no fingers, the Hylian form would attract their attention, the Zora form would have died instantaneously from the fire it might have caused, and the Goron fingers weren't that manipulative.

Now, his traps were set in junctions, him standing with them surrounding him. From any direction they tried to come, they would have to set off at least one of the traps.

Taking a deep breath, Link took off his Goron mask and waited for them to come.

*

It was incredibly simple when they found out about it. The bane of the Dark Copies was a simple component that everyone had. It explained why the dark attacks done smoked against your body as well as why they were easily killed by Epona.

The Dark Copies were weak to blood.

When an artillery shell had struck that area it unfortunately had blown up some of the animals nearby, spraying the Dark Archers that were manning the ballista with chunks of their flesh, bone and blood. This didn't kill them, for it never penetrated their skin (if they had any), but severely burnt them as their skin writhed and boiled from the contact.

Still, Reza, Malik and Malon were still having that very first problem – where was Link?

Just before any of them could complain about the futility of their searching, the ground rumbled.

If they didn't know better, they would have thought that there was an underground explosion.

In fact, they knew better, but this was due to some smoke coming out of a hole. 

*

Link had to marvel and curse at his plan.

The idea of the trap worked perfectly – with just a single blast, Link could see that the powder kegs had blown all three of them up, and from where Link was standing he could confirm that at least one was dead and if the rest weren't, they were heavily injured.

The problem was that the trap worked too perfectly; when it exploded, not only did the fire and momentum damage them, but also the molten rock spraying at them from beneath and the loosened shards and boulders piercing and collapsing upon them. Link knew that the tunnel would also absorb some of the explosion with its small size, and would have to have released some of the excess energy by dropping some of the rocks, hence piling up upon them.

That was the problem – the rocks dropped weren't the ones just above the Dark Angels, and while the heaviest ones were dropped there, small showers of pebbles did brush against Link. That was fine, after all, a bit of stone didn't hurt, but all those pebbles were also showered upon some of the nearer traps.

There were five remaining traps.

All of them surrounded Link.

All of them were going off in a massive blaze of fire and rock.

All of them surrounded Link.

Link forgot where the exit was in his worry.

All of them surrounded Link.

The passage ways were caving in.

All of them...

Link was lost. Link was stuck. Link was in danger. 

Link was sealed in.

*

It didn't take Malik very long to run to the crumbling entrance of the caves. It took less time for the rest to come and survey the destruction that they could see, as well as wonder how by the Goddesses that was managed. It was in instantaneous reaction among them all to assume that Link was involved with this problem. 

Despite their quick minds and feet, it took quite a while to try and dig their way through the rocky barrier. Reza had suggested taking a more tactical approach to getting him out, but without any voice from inside to confirm he was there or any proper equipment to work their way through, the primitive way of grabbing hold of a stone then throwing it away was the best they could come up with. Malik had suggested that Reza do her 'fire thing', but she pointed out that it means taking a lot of mana off Link, and if he was in a weakened state right then it would have done more harm than good.

While they were arguing on how to go at this, the ground started to tremor and a loud (though muffled) rumbling could be heard.

*

Zelda was starting to doubt her father's sanity right now. She had already completed four tasks that were completely pointless, she was about to enjoy the blissful ignorance achieved from forgetting those four tasks when her father sent a messenger to give her a fifth. As strange as the other tasks were, Zelda believed that this was one of the much weirder ones.

After all, what was the point of teaching a Princess how to do two hundred and thirty four point five skips?

Nevertheless, the King had insisted on that and paid particular attention to the success of doing point five skips, so there Zelda was, hopping around with the skipping rope.

Strange was doing that many skips, but stranger still was being told to skip without the skipping rope.

If her father wasn't doing this out of a moment of deliriousness, then he was probably making her jump just for laughs.

It was an angering thought that he also gave Impa the order to laugh out loud as well. 

 Zelda grumbled internally. If this was how it was like to become a monarch, then she'll take the degradation to a peasant any day.

The sight of Impa rolling on the ground with tears in her eyes just gave her an amazing insight: it wasn't degradation; it was a promotion.

*

"No matter how many times you show me, I still find that quite weird." Malik commented, poking Link's face, much to his annoyance.

"I never knew such things were possible. I thought the Church's relics talking about shape shifters were just some mad guy with a pen and paper. My belief in Farore has certainly been increased." Malon breathed, staring at the object in hand.

"When you said you could do amazing things, I wasn't quite expecting this." Reza smirked lightly.

"Well, if you give me enough time, I bet I could lift a mountain as well." Link said, gently pushing Malik's hand away from stabbing his eye. 

The sound that they had heard earlier was Link drilling away at the rock. He was smart enough not to risk another powder keg – that would have just brought the roof on top of him, and this time literally – so instead he prayed that the mana spikes achieved from the Goron form would drill his way out.

"So, what else can you transform into?" Malon asked, peering at the Goron mask and attempting to put it on, but to her dismay not transforming at all.

Right now, Link was glad he placed the seals onto the masks. "Well, aside from the Goron, I can also turn into a Zora, a Deku and a Giant." With these he pulled out those masks from his pouch. Reza wondered why he didn't add the Fierce Deity in as well, but guessed it was for their protection.

"Well, whatever you turn into, I'm glad you came out." Malon said as she peered at the rubble left behind at Link's wake. 

"Yeah, if I can remember correctly, Reza was almost in tears trying to get you out." Malik chuckled at that. Ha, he'll get back at her! Let her suffer the affliction of embarrassment! Let her taste the touch of shame! Let her...

"Yes, I did, in your own little world Malik." Reza replied flatly.

Let her get the better of me. Damn.

"But yes, if you reduce the exaggeration placed upon me, I did worry about you." Reza added on later when they were saddling the horses again. Link smiled at that. 

 "Oh yeah, a question I had almost forgotten, but why do you have leather gloves in your rucksack?" Malik asked, pulling out both pairs.

"I wear them when I skin animals for food. While I have no problem seeing, smelling, and in some cases, spilling blood, I find it against whatever remaining morals I have to touch blood. It's some kind of Kokiri conditioning; that's why I used to only eat herbs, fruits and vegetables back there." Link smiled wistfully at the memory, though a pained expression crossed his face when he remembered the medicine there. Accursed herbs, they either stung like a swarm of bees or tasted worse than concentrated lemon skin.

"Why do you now eat meat then?" Malon asked.

"Well, like I said, I only keep a few morals from the ones I used to have in the past. Fruits are nice and dandy, but they won't supply the strength needed to cleave a Wolfos into two." Link sighed at that thought. "Probably in the future, I will hold no regard to whether the blood I spill is demon, beast, animal or Elf."

Before any of them could respond to what he said, the rubble at the cave mouth stirred. Black tendrils of energy wisped out, and a bedraggled Dark Angel crawled out.

This Dark Copy so far was the only one that could show emotion, and the one it was showing presently was intense hatred.

Before it could clear off into the skies, Reza pulled out her razor boomerang and nicking her arm with the edge, threw it at the Dark Angel, extinguishing its animation permanently.

Link blinked. "I never thought that they were that weak."

"They aren't." Reza seemed proud of this. "I think it's mainly due to the cave collapsing in on them, but it's also because my boomerang had a bit of blood on it." 

"They're weak to that." Malik piped in.

Link nodded lightly as he mused that over. 

"Well, whatever the case, I think still need to fix my sword. With a bit of cleaning up and touch-ups, I think that cave would do quite nicely as a forge." Link grinned at that. "Imagine that, creating our own weapons; if we can trust ourselves, then we can trust our weapons!"

Malon mulled the idea over. "It's a good thought, but where are you going to learn how to repair it?"

"I was going to head to the Gerudo Fortress not just to pick up you guys, but also to ask where I could learn it. Nabooru suggested that idea, so maybe she knows a few people that could teach me how to do it."

Before he could finish, his explanation, another rumble resonated, but this time from his stomach.

"Oh yeah," Link said a bit sheepishly, "do you guys have any food that's not bread?"

*

Ah, finished this chapter finally. Sorry for taking so long, but my attention had wavered in between the upcoming mock exams, fooling around on my computer and playing games. I have completed this chapter at least, and maybe when my mock exams are over, I'll try to speed things up.

Canihavea-soda:

You've probably read up to this chapter with the time that I've taken to update, so I'll reply to your responses now. It's nice to know that some of the texts I type actually make an effect onto people. Thanks for reviewing.

Oh yeah, your story Repaying A Debt is nice. Shame it ended. Though maybe next time, you should start a story with a person everyone knows about (unless it's original, when no one knows about them), then enter the made up characters. Better off on familiar ground.

xXx:

Thanks for reviewing as well. Yeah, I decided that everyone should have a personality at least, and might as well give one of the characters that would pop up quite a few times a quirky attitude. I wonder where I got that idea from... When inspiration hits, it hits hard.

H7:

Upon your polite and sweet (hah!) request, I have finally moved my sorry backside to the computer and started typing something that was... productive. 

The quote is from Act I, by the way. I can't remember which scene, but if you ask him about it (I think it's Scene 3) before you completed it, that's what he'll say. 'What that does not kill you only make you stronger'. I guess so, but nowadays many things that don't kill you make you weaker, like sleeping pills (not in excess), only six hours of sleep for two weeks, etc.

This chapter's completion was for you, by the way. 

Lunatic Pandora1:

Thanks for reminding me about the Fierce Deity – I completely forgot that he could turn into that. So much for planning things out, eh? I just jump into the flock and organise them by how many feet they have. :P

Well, I added the explanation in at least. But thanks for reminding me anyway. It's a pity that his Fierce Deity form would be too big, otherwise I'm sure that there would have been a more interesting fight.

*sigh*, I hate using cut-scenes, but I don't know what to replace them with.

Well, if I missed you out, it's because I didn't scroll low enough or you didn't place the review in. I'd prefer to blame you for my fault, so if it is the first reason, it's because you sabotaged my mouse.

On to the next chapter I go!


	17. Fortress under Attack

Chapter 17: The Fortress under Attack

"Come on, it's not that boring," Nabooru said, gesturing to the waiting Gerudo who was staring disappointingly at Link, "I mean, sure, she has her... eccentricities, but she's the best weapon smith we have in the entire Fortress! Well, aside from your friend Reza's mother, but she's gone..."

Link nodded, but still looked a bit glum as he took in the visage of the 'best weapon smith'. At the age of 60, her coming mortality was showing, but the years had been surprising kind upon her body. And judging by the way she twirled that hammer around, you could tell that she packed quite a lot of strength underneath those wrinkles.

"You ready, boy? I know you boys hold a small attention span, but if you are dedicated to this new thought of yours, why, I bet I could teach you how to make the Master Sword itself!" The old lady grinned widely at that, chuckling at the thought and scratching her faded red hair. 

Nabooru smiled. "Well, I'll have to leave you now – politics and training the kids. Go have fun!" With more of a shove than a light tap, Link was sent tumbling back towards the smith. Assured that he won't try to leave again, she quickly left the area, patting Malik's head on the way.

Without Nabooru to enforce it, Link saw two options he could go with: either play around with Malik and Reza with her sister Sierra, or continue on with this lady that kept droning on, and on, and on...

Link nodded and was about to follow in the most obvious direction when he saw what Malik and Sierra were doing. In the most brutal way possible, they were trying to play one on one rugby, elbowing, booting, shoving, kicking, punching even just to get the ball and race across the sandy ground (which looked a bit painful to land in) and keep  elbowing, booting, shoving, kicking and punching if you wanted to keep the ball. Reza was just sitting there keeping score. 

If he joined the game that would give them an ample reason to make him join so they could play two versus two, and playing a game where injury within three minutes of game-play was imminent, wasn't very appealing. Besides, Sierra didn't seem to like playing by the rules (if there were any).

A scream from Malik as she bit him proved his point. Another howl erupted from his mouth when she kicked him just right where it hurts because he stubbornly refused to let go of the ball.

Well, Link thought, Sierra definitely holds no bars to decency and fair fighting.

Pitying Malik – he was cradling himself on the ground weeping as Sierra scored another seven goals and dissatisfied at his lack of resistance, bounced the ball on his head – Link decided it was better to go for the safer one. It was a stranger (somewhat) yes, but definitely safer.

As he shuffled back towards the lady, Reza gave him the thumbs up and her usual smirk, mouthing 'better you than me'. 

"So, are you ready to be taught by one that could rival the Three Great Master Smiths of legend?" Maira said arrogantly, the picture fixed by the hot desert sun shining gloriously upon her figure, reflecting off the blades laid out against the wall and giving a glowing sheen to her hammer.

"If you could rival them, why haven't you made a Master Sword of your own then?" Link asked. Maira had way too much pride for someone so old, and it would have been nice to pull her down a few pegs or two.

Unfortunately, she turned that comment against him. "Don't be foolish boy. In this desert, where am I going to get such materials to create a mighty weapon? All I have to work with is bronze, iron and steel, no enchanted silver, no gold dust, no diamond sparks, no dragon scales or phoenix feathers. Besides, who would be good enough to wield such a weapon built, and who would pay for it?"

"I could name a few," Link muttered, thinking of Ganondorf.

Whether she heard his response or not, Maira didn't acknowledge it. "It would be best if we start at the beginning. As you know, you must know your working area well to work well in the area. So I'll teach you the equipment you will work with. This is a hammer." She gestured towards the thing she was holding it, and swung it a few times. "It hammers. Now, what is it called?"

Link groaned and hoped that this form of torture would take less time. She might have been the world's best weapon smith for all he knew, but what she was doing was a big insult to his intelligence. "A hammer."

"Very good, I'm surprised you got that. Now, a trickier question: what does it do?"

Really, this was a BIG insult to his intelligence. "It hammers."

Mairara clapped her hands and patted his head in the most impertinent way possible. "You answer with brilliance. Now, this is an anvil. It's used for support, among other things. Now, what is it called?" 

'Goddess above, help me,' Link desperately cried. "An anvil."

"I see you're not lacking brains today. Now what does it do?"

'Farore, when I get out of this, you and me are going to have WORDS, you hear me!?' 

*

Reza decided that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have tried the more feminine arts of patchwork. 

It caused a lot of pain and hassle.

No, she didn't prick her finger and was surprisingly adept at the skill; managing to weave shapes in the matter of minutes, like the rugby Sierra and Malik were playing with.

It caused a lot of pain and hassle to Malik at least, as now he was desperately trying to escape Sierra's wrath, as said person was continuously pounding him with the said rugby.

Ironically, she had quilted the word 'said' onto the rugby ball. She meant to spell 'sand', but Sierra had interfered at one point, making the lines go wrong, so she continued from there (making a problem a perfection, as Nabooru once jokingly quoted) and ended up with the word 'said'. 

Hmm, maybe she could call Sierra and get her off Malik. It looks like he's starting to tear up from her... ministrations.

Then again, he's Malik.

To an outsider's perspective, that doesn't even seem to answer the question.

To hers, it ideally did.

Unfortunately, her morals started getting in the way. Blowing a whistle for half-time – probably the only rule installed – she waved off Malik's grateful nod and Sierra's unhappy pout. Malik had half an hour to freshen up and run as fast as he could, at least until Sierra started hunting after him. 

Chuckling at the thought, Reza let down a still drunk Navi who was just now salivating on her shoulder. How she got drunk, Link wouldn't tell, grumbling a bit about limit breaking and mana. It was nice to know that Link trusted her to Navi's safety, considering her state. And from the childhood – and adulthood, from whatever strands of information she extracted off them – bonds, he was very affectionate towards Navi as well as protective.

From what he said, he had searched through a whole new place undiscovered just to find her. If that wasn't devotion, she didn't know what it was.

Navi grumbled slightly at the harder contact of the rock Reza was sitting on, declaring about equal rights among faeries, fey and fairies that all lead up to her deserving a soft spot to sleep on. After ranting on for a few minutes, she ran out of steam and crawled up to Reza's lap, seemingly forgetting she had wings, patted around for a pocket and snuggled up inside one.

Looking up at about, it seemed like Malik didn't take the opportunity to run so Sierra was crawling over him, forcing his face into funny looking expressions with one hand and creeping towards his wallet with the other. It would have been a successful attempt if it wasn't for that there were two throwing knives stored right next to his wallet that made her prick her finger.

Reza smiled at the scene presented in front of her. Malik was accusing the 'demoness' for trying to rob him flat and Sierra was complaining that Malik was being too much of a wimp in their games. His reply to that was that he wasn't being a scared-y-cat, she was just being an abomination to the essence of life. Her reply was to make him one with the ground.

*

Well, Link thought, at least I'm getting somewhere. While Maira was still ranting on about some memorable deed she did thirty years ago, she had finally taught him the basics of forging, although he was still learning how to heat the metal safely. However, she had already taught him the theories and principles behind folding, stressing, quick cooling and prolonged heating, though she said that if he's dedicated to the art, it might take a bit more than a week to learn them all and more than a month to be able to do them properly.

Unsurprisingly, Link was having trouble at this first stage. Twice had he burnt himself, running around like a lunatic and waving his hand in the air (Maira wouldn't let him dip it in cold water – partly because there was no cold water), he had already singed his boots by accidentally dripping some of the molten copper onto his feet, and only now was he finding a way to regulate the heat so that the metal won't bend too much out of shape. Maira didn't seem to care about what was happening to him, aside from giving a few pointers in between her speeches, but her grandchild Maira the IX seemed to find enough time to giggle whenever he blundered in between her gazing at the sky in her little cot (made professionally by Maira the VIII, who was taught by Maira the VII her mother, who had learnt her skills of her mother Maira the VI and so on).

Now that he had managed to turn the copper into a more stabilised form, Link had to hammer it into the desired form, which in this case, was a small figurine in dedication to Din. He had no idea why she was making him start with so much detail, but when he claimed it was hard, Maira scoffed and created another replica of Din under ten minutes, adding it to her collection of thirty.

While it was obvious she had more years of experience at that task, he couldn't back down from such an insult.

Despite his arduous task, Maira had finished talking about her previous exploits and was droning on about her mother, Maira the VI and her grandmother, Maira the V all the way down to the very first Maira who had no idea to what to call her daughter as she could only remember her name.

Hence began the tradition of naming everyone in the generation Maira. Maira, daughter of Maira, Sister of the Gerudo, Lady of the Desert; aside from the first, every one of them had the same name, and every one of them bore only a single child. Since Link had no idea about his ancestry, his title was Hero of Time to the few to know, sneaky kid to some of the Gerudo patrol guards and Fairy Boy to Malon. 

Speaking of Malon, where was she?

*

Where was Malon? Wherever she was, she didn't know. All she knew were that there were a lot of crates that made up a maze she had no idea how to get out of and a sentry tower somewhere in the distance with two archers waiting on. She had tried calling for them, but either they were ignoring her or they couldn't hear what she said. 

There were a few problems with her problem as well. It was sweltering hot outside, and Malon was badly in need of a drink. She was not strong enough to shift the two metres high crates around, and when she had opened one, she found it full of knives. Really full of knives; so jammed packed that you couldn't even slit a needle in between two knives. Another crate revealed many small pouches of explosive powder, each pouch probably strong enough to take down an entire wall. When she had tripped and pulled off the cover from yet another crate, she was nearly diced into gory bits and pieces from the falling spear heads that fell right on top of her. If it wasn't for the fact that she had the wooden cover flattening her as protection, there would have been only a splat on the ground as a reminder of her existence.

After that she chose to stay clear from tampering with any of the crates.

So, now dehydrating quickly and lost among the crates, Malon was having a few dilemmas to face. Her first challenge that she was thinking of was getting the sentry guards' attention.

*

Malik had hit a brainwave. All he had to do was get a bit further away from that damned demoness and he'll find a way to get her from mauling him! It had taken him nearly two hours of gruelling pain and troubles to remember that he had a pouch of masks at his disposal, and after kicking himself thoroughly for forgetting they were there (he stopped doing that when he noticed how thoroughly Sierra did it for him), was ready to apply the effects.

Sympathy might work, but he wasn't sure that by Gerudo culture looking battered was something to be sympathetic about.

Agreement? Nah, that won't work unless she gives him enough time to speak it out, and if she had a very strong will, it wouldn't work.

So Malik decided to settle for kindness. That had to work, and seeing her charge at him with the 'said' rugby ball and with the very intent to plough him down, he tested if he would sink or swim.

Quickly donning the mask and forcing his will out, he smiled slightly as he could see her blink and her expression change from manic glee to confusion and finally settling to surprise.

It's going to work, the mantra repeated in his mind, getting stronger as he could see her try to slow down, it's going to work, it's going to w...

SLAM!

Malik groaned. It worked, but not fast enough. She slowed down, but not slow enough. 

His mask had been knocked off from the collision, and gently floated down next to him, the desert winds caught under its papery make. As he rolled over to pick it up, he first had to meet the face of Sierra who was chuckling evilly and Reza who wore face of disapproval.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't use magic against my sister." Reza stated.

"Ooh, playing unfair, eh? Well, if you get to use magic, so do I." Sierra offered her evil glare, flicking around a few gunpowder balls around in her hand.

Malik gulped. He could run from Sierra – it would be difficult in his tired state, but possible – but Reza had proven to be  too powerful to outrun or outfight. At least it was only Sierra who was resorting to parlour tricks...

... that was his first opinion until Reza pulled out her 'massaging' equipment from before and started hooking the gunpowder balls on the base of each blade.

*

While Link didn't exactly find out a way to mould the copper into perfect copies of Din, he did find out a few things. The first thing was a very big thing too: copper seemed to store magic quite well.

In his frustration of just swinging a hammer at it and occasionally chipping away with a chisel while it burnt his fingers, Link decided to 'cheat' somewhat by applying mana into his hands to make them fireproof. It was to his surprise that the copper started pulling that form of magic out of him and stored it inside itself. 

Intrigued, Link made a small spark of fire right next to the blob of copper (the furthest he managed to making it look Elfish was making it taller than fatter) and it definitely caught his attention when the fire reverted back to its wispy magical form and get pulled inside the copper piece again.

So, copper could pull magic inside itself. Link wondered whether he should use copper in making the sword, but decided it would be too brittle to try with. But he might as well keep this information with himself.

The next thing he found out, quite painfully, was that copper could only hold a certain amount of magic. When he kept pushing different types of spells inside it – teleportation spells, shield spells, fire spells and the occasional ice spell, but after stuffing the puny blob with two of each, it had blown up in his face, eliciting a giggle from the child watching.

Rubbing the scratches on his face ruefully, Link made sure that the older Maira wasn't around and dragged out another lump of copper. Just to make sure it didn't look like he was slacking, he heated and hammered it somewhat, almost giving in a more visible head, before returning back to experimenting.

He found quite a lot of interesting things before she returned. The copper couldn't take mana off another source unless it was turned into magic (A/N: I'll explain that later, if I remember to), and it couldn't take magic off a stronger source, like a living person, enchanted runes, etc. unless it was physically touching and the spell was held loosely and not anchored down. He found that out from that it couldn't leech the mana off his even when he gave it in full abundance, and it couldn't take out the magic stored in his shoulder guards.

Another thing he found was that he could not pull the magic out of the copper. When Link applied or minor ice spell right next to it, he attempted to pull it out, but could only get the figurative blueprint for it. Link was a bit disappointed in that – he thought he could replace magic charms with copper instead, but figured that if you could have done that, everyone else would have done that already.

Link wondered who he should tell his discovery to. Zelda would probably have been the best choice, but with such distance it really wasn't worth it. He doubted Reza or Malik would understand, though Malik with his emotional powers would probably get a better grasp on it, and presently Malon was no where to be found.

So who would be best to ask?

Farore! That hurt!

Link blinked as he accidentally answered his question. Falling to the ground from the stone to the head, his vision swayed a bit before he dropped unconscious.

*

Malon had picked up a rock, and just to check how deep she was in the maze, tossed it over the wall of crates. Judging by the echo (how close the crates were over there) she had managed to slowly find her way closer to the exit. Looking around, she could see that most of the smaller rocks were way back in the centre, and there were only a few large rocks lying around. Not risking getting lost just to find a rock, she lifted one up, and with a grunt, tossed it over the crates.

That was strange... she didn't think that rocks groaned 'ow' when they landed.

Shrugging, she continued to walk a bit more, and finding the exit, saw the image of Reza, Malik, Sierra and Link's teacher leaning over a guy in green. Malik appeared slightly battered and it looked like it was taking all his strength to stand. Sierra wanted to drop a small explosive on the guy's face to wake him up, to which Reza seemed to disagree with. Link's teacher seemed to be sighing and going on about weak bones. Bending down, she picked up the stone next to Link and shouted about who would get knocked out from such a puny thing.

Malon noticed that the rock looked the same as the one she threw.

Oops.

*

Link knew he was where he talks to Farore, and the timing couldn't have been any better.

It was a pity that pain seemed to cross the planes as well, Link grumbled as he rubbed his sore head.

"Nice to see you again, Link. Do you like my new hairstyle?"

Link turned around, ready to say the standard 'yeah, sure, it's fine' before his eyes boggled out as he stared at her.

Farore smiled. It looks like she caught his eye with her amazing charms.

"By all that is Holy, WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HEAD!?"

Okay, maybe she didn't. With a slightly insulted huff, she cast a quick spell to return her hair back to its usual form of cascading down her back.

"I don't think you appreciate fashion when it is presented to you." Farore huffed, pulling out a brush and brushing her hair.

"Ah, well, fashion's not really needed to live. Oh yeah, I want to tell you something!" Link smiled, ready to supply her with his discovery.

"That copper can keep magic? Yeah, I already knew that."

"How'd you-"

"I'm a Goddess." She replied, as if that explained everything.

And funnily enough, it did.

"So why does copper react that way?" Link questioned.

"Ah, I don't know, and until something worthy happens, I don't care. It was Nayru who embellished copper with its properties, so I have no clue whatsoever." Willing up a water bed, she reclined and chose to enjoy the sensations over thinking.

After examining what was that thing Farore was about to doze upon, Link asked, "What, you mean that gods and goddesses can change the workings of a metal?"

After waiting a moment, Link got no answer. Frowning, he walked over to find Farore snug asleep, who in her sleep had conjured a blanket. When she said she didn't care, apparently she really did mean it.

Thankful for the granted powers of being in a part of the celestial plane, Link heated up the water bed.

Grumbling, Farore unconsciously lowered the temperature again.

Link knew trying to fight her will to raise it would have been a losing battle, for even asleep she was still a Goddess. He couldn't move her, for her will dictated that she will be unmovable. Link smiled. Unfortunately for her, her will did not say anything about the water bed.

Mentally, Farore replaced it again.

Link sighed. This might take a while.

*

"Link seems to spend a lot of time asleep nowadays." Malik noted, occasionally fanning Link instead of himself. The desert heat could definitely be cruel.

"Well, circumstances that surround him seem to always be bad." Reza said, smiling slightly at the previous scene of sheepish Malon admitting to throwing the rock.

"I guess so. But you have to admit, not all of them are bad." 

"For every good one you name, I could name a bad one in replacement."

"How about meeting us? That has to be a good point."

"How about meeting you? That has to be a bad point." Reza chuckled at her own joke and laughed when Malik bristled from the insult.

"That's mean. How about being allowed into Hyrule Castle? That's something not nearly everyone can do."

"How about having to fight two Dark Angels while he went there? It's good experience, yes, but if Navi couldn't fuse with him there would have been a small chance that he would have been able to go out victorious, if he could go out at all."

"How about having all these high powered friends like Nabooru over there, Zelda, the Great Deku tree and people like that?"

Reza nodded in consent. Her eyes roamed over the desert dunes in search of some inspiration. 

My, it's awfully hot today. The heat's distorting my vision so badly that the sand looks like it is black and moving.

Reza paused at that thought. Heat doesn't make anything look like it's another colour.

"How about that?" she pointed out into the desert.

Malik was about to say that something outside in the sands couldn't be related to Link, but had to close his mouth before he could say it.

"Ah crud..."

*

"So, Nayru controls copper and Din controls tin. What do you control?"

Farore mumbled an answer at that, looking a bit embarrassed. 

"What? Sorry, I couldn't hear you." 

"Silver." she muttered.

"What's with the downcast expression? Silver looks good." 

Farore bristled at that. "Unfortunately, that's all it does; look good. Unlike every other God, I couldn't care less what my chosen metal did, so while they experimented away I went and had fun." She sighed at that. "Now, when I look at it, there are so many metals that do so much, yet all mine can do is look pretty. It's pitiful. Heck, it's not even the prettiest: people prefer platinum or gold for that value!"

Link shrugged. "I still say it looks cool. Besides, aren't werewolves allergic to silver?"

"Not really," she winced, "they are kind of allergic to silver, but not silver-silver. Silver can be broken up into separate types: enchanted silver, mythic silver, runic silver, cursed silver, blessed silver, core silver and mine, good old plain silver. What lycanthropes find as poison is cursed silver."

"But I thought that it was usually priests and the like that harmed werewolves. Why would the stuff they use be cursed?" Link wondered aloud. Farore smiled at that question, shaking her head.

"Fanaticism breeds corruption and sin. Unfortunately, as devoted our followers are, they can still cause a lot of incorrect activities under our name. There actually is nothing wrong with being a lycanthrope – it's just that most priests and the like see them as 'harbingers of Hell' and stuff like that, just because they're different. As you can imagine, being shunned because you're born different can do things to your mind that may make you do things you normally wouldn't.

"But to your question, everything starts of in the form of core silver – if you can extract it successfully without even tampering with it a bit, of course. Usually, that never happens so it is turned into plain silver, and due to my inactivity," Farore glared at Link's muttering of 'laziness', "does zilch. On those occasions you can pull it out as core silver, if it is ever touched with blood, sweat or any liquid that came from a living being – even water from a plant – it will turn cursed. So when you touch core silver, the small amount of sweat you have on your fingertips is enough to change it."

Link stared. "Uh, wow."

Farore immediately returned to her pompous attitude. "Of course, these things are way above your head involving mana charting, compound reactions, chemical disturbances and all the other bull that Nayru complains that I don't listen to. Just accept it as a fact from a Goddess and pray to me. Donations accepted."

"Yeah, I'll go visit a priest later. By the way, the last time we met you were going to say something about my shoulder guards?" Link added on, remembering it.

"Oh yes!" Farore smiled, clapping her hands and chuckling darkly. "I believe that a demonstration should be in place."

Link didn't really like that smile. And judging by the way she was pulling out fireballs from thin air, he didn't think he'll like what she was about to do.

*

The horns blared as every capable Gerudo got ready to fight. Orders were yelled across the Fortress as everyone scrambled to obtain their preferred weapons. Children were huddled in the underground shelter as arrows were knocked into place, ready to fire. Above all this surprised chaos and expected order, Nabooru took charge.

What Reza had spotted was an entire group, no army, of Dark Copies charging their way across the sands. Not all of them appeared remotely human, with some slithering on the ground with their scaly talons poised and some flying and releasing guttural screams of pain. From what could have been seen, the entire army was trying to swarm at them and attack from every possible direction and angle.

With a shout of frustration, Nabooru had finally stationed the archers on the walls and was impatiently waiting for the arrival of the oil. The idea was that the archers would try and take out as many of the flying Dark Copies as possible before they could cross the walls and a group of Gerudo warriors would try to maintain the guard at the base of the Fortress. Once all of the flying units were disposed of, Half of the outer archers would rappel down the wall with their scimitars and help the ones fighting below cleave their way out, dividing the Dark Copy army into smaller sections which would then be kept separated from dropped explosives as the protective numbers of Gerudo stationed inside would be discharged to fight outside and scythe down the smaller groups. Any remaining stragglers that might have escaped would be ploughed down by the Gerudo Cavalry Assault Force, who would hopefully remove as many of them as possible, circling the Fortress in a spiral pattern.

If anything went wrong, however, the GCAF would have to attack from their hiding places and hope that the surprise attack would reduce their numbers significantly. Nearly everything lied in the removal of those flying Copies.

Nabooru sighed. In moments like these she wished that the Fortress held a larger population. From what she could see, it was six hundred Gerudo against two thousand Dark Copies, excluding the air force.

"Everyone is equipped and ready to go, Miss." Maira the VIII said, saluting. After her and her mother checked all the weapons, they now had to join the warding line and stave off the Dark Copies from below.

"Are the land mines operable?" Nabooru asked. When they had heard of a small team of black things attacking Hyrule Castle a while ago, they heard that they were taken down by Link (which raised everyone's respect for him). As a safeguard, all around the Fortress miniature explosives were dotted randomly, but would only work when a signal had been given.

"Unfortunately, only around sixty of them seem to have responded."

Damn. 

"Alright and how are the Sheikah and Reza?"

"Reza's willing to go into the battlefront and she says that if she can pull a technique off, she'll be able to raze down possibly the entire army."

Nabooru raised her eyebrows at that. "I certainly hope she can pull it off, in that case. Do you have any idea what that technique is?"

"None, Miss."

"What about the Sheikah?"

"He says he'll help in providing a defence in some areas, claiming that his masks would help hold them off, at least for a while."

"Well, we'll see some Sheikah sorcery at work then. How's Link?"

"Unfortunately he still remains asleep."

Damn. 

"What about the ranch girl, Malon?"

"She has been taken to the shelter along with the children, although she's adamant to helping in the fight. You have to admit, the girl got spirit."

Turning around, she yelled at the archers: "Wait for the very first explosion of the mines before firing! Hopefully it would pull their attention slightly so you can take down as many of the airborne ones as possible! This Fortress isn't falling today!"

Hearing a roar of affirmation relieved her somewhat. At least everyone was willing to fight against the impossible odds. All Nabooru could do, aside from shout orders and fight up close was hope.

*

Standing at the gates of the Fortress, Reza drew her scimitars. From her vantage point a number of Dark Snake-men were leading, slithering down the dunes as an incredibly fast rate. Reza smirked at that – whoever that had organised the attack had chosen their fighters well. As well as brutally sharp teeth and talons (which Reza found a bit weird, for snakes usually didn't have arms) their bodies were perfect for crossing the sands quickly. 

The age of her Sisters standing at guard varied from thirteen to thirty. Some looked panicked and some looked dead calm. Even with the snarls of the incoming Dark Copies, a worrying silence hanged over the Sisters. A whistle from above signalled the time when everyone laced their weapons with chicken and goat blood, but after that silence reigned as everyone tensed.

Through the silence Reza could hear someone singing the Gerudo lullaby to a child inside.

"The barren winds may blow the sand,

The razing sun may scorch the ground.

But know you're safe within my hands,

I shall keep you safe and sound.

The sun rises and soon it dies,

Our Sisters are marching off to war.

Heed little to the battle cries,

I'll make sure blood will never reach our door.

"Vast is the Desert and so with the sky,

Infinite colours for all to see.

May the spirits of our Sisters let you fly,

May the will of the Gerudo set you free." 

Reza smiled slightly at that, remembering a time when she had sung it to a child. Swearing upon the song, Reza promised that blood will never reach the doors.

*

"Oh? How interesting," Farore muttered, pausing in her onslaught of fire against Link, "it appears that there's quite a big commotion down in the Desert." 

Coloured charcoal and definitely worse for wear, Link was thankful for the break, until he noticed something she said.

"Hey, aren't I physically down there?" Link said worriedly. He couldn't contribute if he was still unconscious.

"Yes, yes, but you're doing more good with yourself mentally here than if you were active down there. Besides, you would still be a bit woozy from the bang on your head." Farore replied lightly.

"Oh, alright... so what's happening down there?"

"A big army of Dark Copies are attacking."

"Oh...."

Strange, Farore thought, he's taking this quite calmly.

"WHAT?" Link shouted teleporting across and grabbing Farore by her arms. "You're telling me that they're under siege and I'm better off here? How bad is it?"

Raising her hands, she gently propelled Link away from herself. "Peace boy, peace. It wouldn't do for you to get upset now. Here," she gestured towards a well that she had created, "look into the waters. This is more of Nayru's speciality, but I think I've focussed it to give you an overview look of what's going on."

Link hesitantly crept to the well and peered at it. After surveying it, he gawked.

"Farore, have you taken a good look at what's going on?" he asked softly, his eyes fused to the image given to him.

"No, not really, just that Din told me that there's a minor scuffle going on down there. Why?" She hovered across slowly and stood next to him, leaning over his shoulder to see what he saw.

"Take a good look and see how 'minor' it is."

Farore got a good look alright, and all that went through her head was 'Din understates things too badly' as the battle broke out.

*

Things were not going well for Reza down in her position. Malik had to help another side with his emotional warding, so they were a bit overwhelmed by the numbers that they had to keep facing. 

Parrying a lunge a Dark Snake-man did with the flat of her blade, she winced at the pressure applied onto her arm and skidded back. Grimacing, she lashed out with her other sword, delivering a deep cut inside its abdomen and letting its reaction to blood take place. Taking a step back, she gave her Sister nearby enough space to do their famed Gerudo Spins, dicing some of the nearer ones.

As they leapt back, she wondered why their archer team hadn't managed to remove all the air units that were wreaking havoc by swooping down and gnashing away. Nonetheless, she attempted her version of the Gerudo Spin, the one that took the standard three step footing four steps further.

It may have been the satisfaction of beating the enemy one on one or the cruel enjoyment of bloodlust, but Reza gave a Dark Copy a dark grin before it was hewed into pieces from her final move. However, the satisfaction was short lived as a Dark Swordsman tried to chop her head off, to which she had to block with both blades.

Scowling at the exertion her arms were taking, she slid one of her scimitars down his blade and sliced off his fingers. While he screamed in pain, she took the opportunity to behead it.

Unfortunately, by then she was too tired to block the coming talon. Her weak defence was brushed aside as the Dark Snake-man managed to stick his arm through her abdomen. Screaming in pain, she kicked hard against it and excruciatingly removed his arm from her. Crumbling to the ground, one of her Sisters gave her enough time to crawl back by fighting it off before she herself had to repel another Dark Copy. 

Coughing up blood, Reza growled at the approaching Snake-man. For a emotionless thing, she could swear that there was a sneer plastered onto its face.

Curse it, she needed power and she needed it NOW!

Just then, Link's Triforce symbol glowed.

Before the Dark Copy could deliver the killing blow, flames erupted around her, incinerating its arm.

"I'm not done, buster, and I'll only be done when all of you are dead." She growled, plunging a flaming sword into its head.

*

There! Work done! Chapter finished! Praise me! Heed the glory of my passage! Bow to the omnipotence created from my presence! 

Ah heck, just say thanks.

Lunatic Pandora1:

Yeah, well, due to a saving problem I made, I had to redo the entire Stone Tower, so I gave up and never knew how big the Fierce Deity could get. If you say it's big then it's big. If you say it's powerful (and so does everyone else) then it's powerful. Anyway, if you ever spot a problem in my story, a flaw I had missed out, help me find it and in the next chapter I'll try to create an excuse to why it's there. Thanks!

Firedrake 2006:

It's nice to see your views on my story. Truly, I'm touched by your comment, or at least I think I am. But believe me, you don't want to write like me – my way is to stretch things so that it looks like a long, decent thing instead of the short, miniature battle it really is. You can start hoping to write like me when I find out how to make a battle believable, though, and I might find a few pointers for you, if you want!

xXx:

Well, I took long. Sorry. I'm not sure how you measure long, anyway. I think I got this story within, uh, two months. That's not long, right? So, the FD mask makes Link massive, eh? Unfortunately, my tendency to give up when something extremely bad happens turns my eye away from Majora's Mask, so I'll never know unless I remove this bad habit. By the way, does the FD mask do anything aside from just throwing energy blades around? I'm not sure. Thanks for the fact, though!

H7:

I just remembered something you said from before. When I reviewed to you, you said you disliked having to type in the dash each time in my name. I have found a solution to that! I call it 'copy and paste'. Not bad, eh? The brainwork of I is amazingly sharp, no?

The weakness of blood is something I made up on the spot. This story is meant to be plot oriented (and I hope it is seen as such) but nearly all the time the scenes are improvised. I had foreseen the battle from above, and with the Dark Copies' cold determination and endless strength and stamina as well as large numbers, the Gerudo would have needed that edge to remotely win. Of course, you can imagine the Dark Copies will find some form of immunisation to it.

Well, try to remember what you were going to say, and while you stare at that blank wall, I'll stare at this blank screen. Your story is getting better every chapter, by the way. I have to say, it's damn good. 


	18. Shikaku's Brother

Chapter 18: Shikaku's Brother

Reza briefly wondered why she was able to maintain this fire form for a very long time, before deciding that the death of the Dark Swordsman was of higher importance. Parrying its blow (and smirking at its silent scream as her fires burnt through its arm), she flicked her sword out, sending a stream of red flame that sliced through it and those behind.

The only problems she was still having was the gaping wound on her abdomen, and the fire magic she was wielding only slowed down the bleeding and suppressed the pain. It still bled and it still hurt.

Glancing back, it appeared that her fellow Gerudo fighters had fallen back into the walls and were relying on her and the cavalry team to dispatch the rest. More had went to the walls to fire upon the flying Dark Copies, although her fire copy was doing that job quite nicely.

Well, now the Fortress had the firepower to take down this swarm, but still...

Reza growled in frustration as threw a wave of fire, demolishing an incoming group. Yet still with the four hundred that had been killed by her only, more still came.

How many were there altogether?!

Malik wasn't a real healer. He never really learnt proper first aid properly, even though being with Link meant they entered proper battles and hence it would be proper to have the proper knowledge.

But he did know that when you tried to tend to a shallow cut, you weren't kicked by the patient who kept screaming about torturing weakened soldiers.

That's proof enough that he isn't a healer at all.

Finally, the lady yanked her arm away from his dangerous grasp, grumbling about finding someone that cares and stomping off in a direction that would allow her the most distance in between them. Sighing in disappointment, Malik tried to wonder what he did wrong: he did everything according to the book, and opening it and reviewing its contents, his actions were to the same effect.

Shutting the book, the title of 'Learn how to Care for your Pet Octorok and Fire Turtle in 765 Easy Steps!' gave the answer.

Hmm...

Her uniform was the same colour of an octorok, only not as splotchy, of a darker tint and wasn't coated with slime...

Ah heck, Malik grumbled, I'm bad at this.

Flopping onto the bench, he concentrated briefly to see how the emotions outside were. The archers were still willing to fight, and the void of feelings known as the Dark Copies seemed to be held at bay by a strong form of determination and some others. Guessing from the way those fighting outside were moving, he guessed that they were following the plan of moving in a spiral.

Just before he relaxed, a sudden burst of malice appeared in the distance, almost forcing – scaring? – the Dark Copies outside to fight harder. Frowning deeply, he got up and proceeded to the outer walls to get a good view of what was going on.

As he circled around the treating tables, injured and healers and precariously stepped over the first-aid sets, bandages and gauze, he did not even notice that there was a cleared path just two steps to his left. It was soon made clear to him when a line of Gerudo used it to file towards the walls, each armed with a bow and carrying a small quiver of arrows.

Ah.

Scowling at his poor sense of awareness, he paused at thought and tried to fight off a grin. He could read emotions and on some occasions read minds with just a thought and a flip of a mask, yet he could check a book title nor spot that long line of gauze-less-ness.

Shaking his head in admonishing himself silently, he hopped over the kits set on the ground onto the path...

... only to be run over by Malon.

"Ow," Malik whined, silently screaming 'that has happened twice now!'

"Oh, sorry, it's just that Link hasn't woken up yet. I was hoping to get someone to help me shake him." 

His brain still jostling within his skull, Malik was sure that she had the required strength to shake him.

"Ah... that's nice. Well, I'm going to check on Reza." Malik replied dazedly, grimacing as he peeled his backside off the floor.

"You're not going to help me? Well, you don't look very strong right now, so I'll go find someone else." With a apologetic bow she rushed off again.

"Let's see you get bulldozed and stand confidently." He grumbled under his breath, wondering if there was something about him that made females pound him so.

Sighing, he resumed his original task, watching Reza's performance. After trudging the remaining three steps (and stopping for six seconds in between each to watch out for any nearby females) he reached the window, looking out for Reza and any sign of the negative burst's origin.

"Well, that was unexpected." He muttered softly, staring at what Reza was doing.

In the desert sands, heat wouldn't have done anything much to it. But Reza was still injured, and the longer she fought the harder it would have been to bring them all down. Taking advantage of the unlimited amount of mana, she had started throwing two blades of fire at the ground near the Dark Copies. Aside from a heat wave, fire-wise it did nothing, but that was not the purpose anyway. The first fire blade heated the sand to glass, and the second one blasted it out, impaling nearby Copies with fractured glass. From above her fire double rained death upon them.

Malik winced at the brutal display, almost feeling sympathetic for one that had gotten molten glass in its eye. Briefly he wondered where she got such ideas from.

"Burn, infidels, burn!" Farore cackled with glee. Through the seeing well, scorch marks were apparent all over the battlefield with Reza dicing the Dark Copy army into small little bits. Her attack involving the glass explosion was disturbing to Link, though he was a bit grateful that Dark Copies didn't have any internal organs to spill. If those people Reza had been fighting were living, however...

Abruptly, Farore stopped her laughing and peered intensely at the well.

"Eh? Farore, what's wrong?" Link asked, examining the battlefield for anything unusual enough to catch Farore's attention.

"By all that's holy," she muttered softly, a mild tinge of anger open in her eyes, "they broke the treaty yet again."

"Who are they? What treaty?" Link asked with more insistence. What she was talking about seemed to be a very important subject.

"No time, maybe later. I'll have to send you back now, got important business to do. Just remember what your dragon scale guards can do and you should help tip the favours a bit." Farore rushed, grabbing his tunic top and trousers and flinging him into consciousness. Link knew that the matter was probably a bit more serious for her not to use her standard mallet.

Fire.

For the fight, that was her main fighting element.

Fight.

Now that Reza thought about it, was this a fight? It was more like a sadistic attempt at butchering the opponent. Who the opponent was didn't truly matter.

Opponent.

They were fighting someone, perhaps even _something_. Whoever they were fighting, they had to have had a lot of power to pull such an army out of thin air.

Power.

Coming back to the present, that was what she was unleashing in waves. Sheer might rolled off her in the flames, scorching all those Dark Copies that surrounded her, unmindful to the fact that they lost large numbers of their own.

Lost.

And perhaps with good reason too. From her own perspective, their numbers were infinite; it mattered not whether they lost a dozen, a hundred or even a thousand, for they would just keep coming. Their numbers never ended. Maybe all this fighting was futile.

Futile.

Give up? Hah! What a joke! Reza frowned slightly as she narrowly dodged a claw aimed for her throat and released a burst of fire, reducing the Dark Snake-man into smoke and preparing the glass for her next burst. Going back to her thoughts, what would they gain from giving up? 

Thoughts.

Absolutely nothing. To give up meant to be killed. Nothing gained there. However, looking at it, unless inside the Fortress there was an incredibly powerful weapon to blow all of the Dark Copies to kingdom come, it would take strategic manoeuvring to come out on top of this endless torrent of enemies. They'll have to be sneaky. They'll have to be subtle. They'll have to be lethal.

Sneaky.

We're Thieves for crying out loud, Reza thought, pretending to be tired while charging up for another blast. Those things she were fighting weren't very smart. It doesn't take much to outwit these things, and look at them falling for this bait! Her thoughts turned to a more sinister tone as she released a wave of fire

Nearly laughing at their stupidity, as they flailed about trying to extinguish the flames, Reza turned her attention to the coming wave. There weren't any bigger fish to fry, but definitely a lot more.

Link had quickly returned back to the land of consciousness, but as soon as he did he was almost sent back to the land of unconsciousness.

"Malon – ack – stop – shaking – me." He managed to squeeze out of himself, but not before she started slapping him.

"Oh, you're awake! I think you should help Reza out there, she seems to be tiring." Malon blinked, dropping him in surprise (which caused a nasty thunk as his head slammed against the bed).

"Uh..." Link groaned.

Malon blithely ignored that it might be a groan of pain, so assumed that it was confusion. "While you were napping, this place had been attacked by Dark Copies. Reza is holding the fort quite well right now, but she has a nasty cut in her stomach that's slowly getting worse."

Link nodded. Gathering up his items, he suddenly remembered something of vital importance. Something that he couldn't fight without this knowledge. Something that he couldn't fight with this knowledge.

"Damn, my sword's still broken."

"Curse it, Navi's still drunk."

"Wait a sec, Reza's still fighting with such a serious injury?!" With speed that could only be granted from the zeal of protection, Link hooked his shield in his right hand and scuttled out.

"Link! You-" Malon cried out, but was quickly interrupted.

"No time Malon! I know how those injuries hurt, and it is best not to strain them!" He shouted back, jumping down the stairs three at a time.

"You're going the wrong way." She finished lamely, alternating her focus between his retreating back and the path he should have taken. Oh well, she thought cheerily, at least he'll pick up a sword that way.

There. Another pulse of evil. But where was it coming from?

Malik vainly searched into the distance, hoping to spot something. It was extremely tricky, for the only things he could see were swarms of Dark Copies coming from a single direction.

Oh, one's nearly at the gate.

With a response time that was second to none, he flicked on a mask of compassion and released a wave of emotions, staving it off long enough for a Gerudo archer to target.

Mildly happy about that minor victory, Malik continued to stare off into the distance, hoping to catch whatever was creating that.

"Back, heathens, back!" Nabooru yelled, swinging her scimitars in a deadly dance of steel. As she finished her Gerudo Spin and brutalised the chests of those coming Dark Swordsmen, she immediately lunged out and hacked two into separate parts, and giving no care to recoil time did a rolling hop, crushing one underneath her.

"I wasn't just given leadership on a silver platter!" She yelled out, focussing a bit of mana and releasing a small burst of power, "I had to fight for it!"

Flipping over one of them, she condensed a ball of her will and with a roar, she released it.

"I didn't become a Sage of Spirit just to hold onto the part, so don't fight someone who bends spirits to my will." Nabooru whispered after the explosion receded.

Chuckling, she cracked all the cricks in her neck and back and waved to Reza on the field who was still tackling some enemies despite her wound. Magic was an amazing thing, for so long as the fires burned the blood did not seep out. How long the fires would last was the real question.

Grinning slightly, she compressed a bit of her mana in her hands and using her own spirit as a channel, released the magic ball at a group that was charging at Reza. Grunting in satisfaction at the blast, she ran over to give her some help while she still can.

"Goodbye, little scum," Reza hissed at the last Dark Copy, and with a growl plunged her fiery sword deep into its throat. Watching as its body evaporated into the air, she was ready to collapse when Nabooru patted her on the back.

"Good work, little lady, I'm sure you deserved your break." Nabooru complimented, sheathing her swords. Reza briefly wondered why she was not harmed by the fires, before guessing it was a magic thing.

"I'll need to get this wound tended to. Don't mind me, but I'll be going back in." Reza muttered, sheathing her own scimitars and toned down the flames. Wincing as the pain slowly returned, she hobbled back to the Fortress as two Gerudo ran out to help her.

There!

Malik found it! The source of all that malevolence! It was in an elfish shape, sort of, and was dressed in some form of red combat robes and he carried around a katana. He had apparently been holding some sort of portal open in which the Dark Copies flooded through, but Malik guessed that the supply had ran dry.

'Wait a minute,' Malik thought; peering at the guy's weapon, 'didn't Link say he had fought someone like that? He said that his most powerful form couldn't stop him.'

The two running Gerudo caught his attention briefly and his eyebrows skyrocketed in alarm. 'Oh jeez, Reza's still hurt!'

Without any thought to that he was four stories high and above a pile of rocks, Malik jumped down in hopes to help Nabooru fight the person off. He wasn't much of a fighter, but every bit helps.

"Tired already? What a pity – the fun's just started." A voice echoed across the Desert, sending shivers down Reza's back.

"Who're you? Show yourself!" She barked to the sky, warily turning around as her friends tried to pull her in.

"Show myself? If you can see, I'm in plain view. Unfortunately, I've cast a spell that causes those that are bleeding to not be able to see me. What a pity, isn't it?"

"Then who're you? And why are you here?" Nabooru demanded, unsheathing her weapons again and concentrating to dart out at any direction.

"Who am I?" A voice whispered right behind her, startling her and making her hop away, "I'm known to many as Shukaku. I'm here for the revenge of my brother."

Nabooru stared at the man intently. With his peculiar green hair that went to the waist, he stood out amazingly that she wondered how he managed to stay out of sight for the past hours. He wore a large black pendant and with the katana he carried he looked extremely deadly.

Looks didn't count for everything. It was more the feeling of power that rolled off him in waves as well as the hazy black aura that surrounded him that truly made him look lethal. The foreign garments also showed that he might have held some type of power yet unknown to them.

"Revenge? The Gerudo have been known to do many things that people dislike, but while I was in control there had been nothing that would affront someone so far away." She said warily, examining him for every threatening gesture.

"Oh, my revenge is not against you personally, it's against one that you hold presently. Since you seemed so adamant to fight off my coming force, why not fight back? That group was meant as an assassin hit team, but since you chose to engage in combat, the rules had to change slightly." He replied coolly, slowly drawing out his sword.

Nabooru did not believe one bit of it. "You'd send an entire army for an assassination, in broad daylight?" Glancing back, Reza had managed to get back into the safety of the Fortress, so it was just her against him right now. By Din, she hoped she could tackle him alone – he looked physically the same as her, but she knew without doubt that his magical prowess had to be better for him to call out an army of Dark Copies.

"What can I say? Things work differently where I come from. I have no care for subtle manipulations and underhanded vileness. I prefer stating my intentions clearly so nothing will be mistaken. It makes things fairer."

Nabooru almost laughed at that. "Fair? You had sent an army well over three thousand against us, ours numbering ten times smaller. You call that fair?"

Shukaku laughed. "Fair enough for me. Now, let's fight."

Link let loose a few swear words as he rushed back up the staircase. Now he had a sword, but it would take another five minutes of continuous running to reach the outer gates, and by then he worried that fatigue might reduce his performance standards.

The sound of metal clashing caught his attention, and making a flying leap to the nearest window, slapped his forehead in shame.

Down, on top of a pile of stone, laid Malik. In his desperate attempt to not become shredded meat, he had miraculously managed to knock all the pointy bits away by flailing his knives around. Malik had the right idea to get out fast, but the wrong idea of where.

Sighing, Link hopped down, but used his shield for a semi-balanced ground that wasn't sharp and pokey. Extending a hand, he helped Malik back to his feet.

"Thanks." Malik churned out, coughing from hyperventilation. "Scary fall."

"Scarier landing." Link added on, to which Malik nodded. "Well, once you've done your breathing exercises, Nabooru and Reza might need our help."

"Nabooru only now," Malik corrected, frowning at his blunt knives, "Reza managed to get back in after her power started running out."

Link paused at that. "So, Nabooru is fighting him alone?"

"Yeah, nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"Aside from all the magic trinkets the guy should have, if he's just as good as his brother he's damn fast!"

Link's description of Shukaku's speed would have been an understatement, Nabooru would have thought if she knew what Link had said. It was her amazing grace and sharpened reflexes that prevented her from being shredded by his sword. His attacks seemed to come from at least three different directions, and it took all of Nabooru's concentration to block the real attack and dodge the feints.

"Impressive footwork you have there," Shukaku commented, "not many have been able to block or dodge my onslaught, even when equipped with shields."

"Bah, a shield will break against a constant attack. It's best to fight steel with steel." Nabooru replied, altering her stance into a defensive one. If she could make him drop his guard for just a moment, a Gerudo spin would be able to cut through and hopefully, end him. The risk there was that for a moment her back will be turned to him, and with his speed that moment would be long enough to cut through her instead.

"Indeed. That's why I fight with a sword only. Nonetheless, this battle is taking far too long."

Nabooru raised an eyebrow, but internally she was really worried. "And what do you plan to do about that?"

Shukaku chuckled, and as he grabbed his pendant, black flames flickered to existence, swarming his body and giving him a sinister glow. "This," he snarled, eyes turning savage as the flames fully surrounded him.

He charged in for the attack, but her block was bashed aside from the sheer force behind it. It was only by mere luck that the slash to her heart was dodged, but she stilled suffered a injury to her shoulder for her efforts.

"The Black Fire is a poison," he sneered, "it will infect your mind and consume your body."

Nabooru didn't need him to tell her that. Her own spirit was screaming it at her, and it was taking all her concentration to look like she was concentrating while her spirit battled the poison.

It didn't look like the spirit would win, if she had to keep on fighting.

Shukaku laughed as the woman in front of him tried to fight the poison. He had to agree, she had a strong will to even attempt it, as part of the poison involved dampening all resistance against it.

No matter. She'll die.

All of a sudden, just as he was about to laugh contemptuously, a battle cry was heard right above him and a blue blur smacked right into him.

Link slapped his head. Malik, ever caring, ever laughing and ever stupid Malik had just jumped onto a person. While that would have been fine in normal circumstances, the black flickering around Shukaku suggested it was stupid to even touch a person on fire.

Sighing, he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate like Farore suggested. The shoulder guards were actually more of shock absorbers than anything else, no matter the part of body being struck, but it had the special skill of summoning a spirit. Link hoped, with all the prestige surrounding the noble warriors of past, there would be one good enough to help.

"Curse it," he swore, "there are _no _spirits around here!" With a disgruntled yell, he rushed over to help Malik, shouting, "And we're next to a Spirit Temple for crying out loud!"

Malik's speed was a great bonus when they fought against Shukaku. For every blow he tried, Malik would be there to intercept it, hack at him as hard as he could with his knives then bounce away for Link to deliver the real attack.

Unfortunately, that tactic couldn't last forever. With its predictable pattern, Shukaku had been able to guess into the future successfully and block, dodge or counterattack.

Link wheezed from the last successful strike Shukaku made against him. Yep, the counterattack hurts.

"Pathetic cretins," he sneered, eyeing Link and Malik, "I find it hard to believe that you weaklings were able to defeat my older brother. You bear none of the power he spoke of."

Link just didn't want to use the Fierce Deity mask. Should it go rampant, there would be an entire fortress nearby to slaughter. No, that mask was too much of a risk. The best he could do was wear the bunny hood mask, but that would dispel some of the images of him being mighty and dignified (a bunny hood? Come on...).

Nonetheless, he quickly flipped it onto his head and with a brief thought unlocked the seal.

Shukaku laughed uproariously at the display. "Wearing children's party hats now? What good will that–" he was silenced when Link ran in with a powerful strike to the gut. Acting on speed unexpected of him, Link rammed his sword into the base of Shukaku's knees making him drop down and reversing his grip on the sword, bashed his hilt into his jaw. Just for a final good measure, Link wedged as best as he could the base of his blade into Shukaku's shoulder (causing a scream of pain) and using it as a pivot, flipped over, grabbed the hilt and the moment his feet touched the ground, swung down.

Hard.

Shukaku roared in pain as his left arm was brutally ripped off. Stumbling back to his feet and taking a few steps back, he clutched his shoulder and glared at Link. "You caught me by surprise there. I must commend you for that, but you won't get that opportunity again."

Link cursed silently. If it had been the Master Sword, or even the Gilded Blade, Shukaku would have lost a bit more than his arm. In fact, he should have been dead, with the attempt to strike for the heart! Curse it, why can only few people make good swords?

His thoughts were cut short as he had to roll back to avoid a slash to his neck. By the feral rage in his eyes, it appeared that Shukaku channelled all that pain and anger into sheer speed and force. Link was running out of running space as he was slowly forced into a corner. With a triumphant yell, Shukaku swung down, moving too fast for Link to raise his shield.

It didn't really matter, as Nabooru got in the way of the attack.

"Forgot about me, eh?" she whispered nastily, straining as their blades crossed, "bad mistake."

As Nabooru continued their previous twirl of blades that gave Link enough time to think and get away.

Fine, back to plan A. Spirits, spirits, spirits... Link desperately cast his mind across Hyrule, just trying to find even the smallest speck that suggested a spirit had rubbed his nose over there. However, for the life of him he couldn't even spot a single one.

'Maybe I need to go to a place more amplified,' Link thought, his mind drifting towards the scenic horrors of the Spirit Temple.

Looking at Nabooru, it seemed that she and Malik were trying to double-team Shukaku – Nabooru will enhance injuries already done, and Malik will aggravate them even more. It looked partially successful, however it would take too long and from experience with Shikaku, once they got fed up they'll pull out another trick of theirs.

"Nabooru!" he called out, "can you hold the fort for a while? I need to try something!"

"Providing his damned fires don't touch me, I'll hold out as long as I need to!" she yelled back, hooking a stone with her heel and hurling it with a kick to his abdomen.

Nodding, Link ran off.

Reza gritted her teeth to prevent any screaming from coming. Belly wounds are serious; they always are and eventually lead to death if not tended to. Thankfully the magic fire she cast helped slow down her deterioration, and right now back in the fortress they were cleaning it from infection.

Iodine hurts. And they were wiping a towel soaked with it across her stomach. Lying on her back and screaming internally, she briefly pondered whether they should check for internal injury first since she got impaled with a sword.

Right next to her Sierra was bawling her eyes out, screaming 'don't die!' continuously along with her sobs. Reza didn't think that she'll die yet, for none of her intestines spilled out nor did much blood flow freely. It still touched her how much her biological sister cared anyway.

"Well, your spine hasn't been damaged thankfully, I think you might suffer some intestinal bleeding, but until Nabooru comes and checks you up all we can do is bandage you and get you to lie still." Maira commented, pulling out some clean bandages.

"Not really," Malon panted, pausing to regain her breath from her run, "here's some medicine for you to drink. The red potion is meant to help speed up your healing, and the yellow potion is a painkiller. I can't remember which order you're meant to drink them in though." Looking apologising, she handed the two bottles over.

"I'll gamble," Reza muttered, uncorking the red potion first and drinking it quickly. "It wouldn't help taking medicine if my body can't take it in anyway." With that cold comment she swallowed the yellow potion, shivering from the taste.

Closing her eyes and trying to ignore Sierra's screams of 'stay alive!' Reza decided it'll be best to take a nap now.

The only thing that got into Link's way was a bunch of rocks, but in his haste he practically flew over them. Arriving at the entrance, he took a deep breath and tried to concentrate again.

Well, Link dimly thought as he scanned around, there are a lot of spirits travelling through here. Most of them were spirits of normal people, meaning that bringing them to battle would be a waste of time.

Ah! Link noticed a particularly powerful spirit, but prevented himself from summoning it just in time when he realised how malevolent it was.

This might take some time...

Nabooru stumbled back when Malik accidentally kicked her face. Nabooru herself could keep fighting, but Malik's stamina was slowly draining away, and he was making more mistakes because of it. Whatever Link went to do, he better do it fast before Malik's exhaustion got in the way. But for now, it was all she could do to drop to the ground to avoid becoming splinters.

As time went on, Shukaku became more savage, acting more primitively in his attacks and speaking less. While the smaller show of skill was a bonus, the sudden upsurge of speed, strength and awareness was getting too much to overcome. All she needed was a little break from the fight...

Amazingly, her little break came in a little form.

"Back you heathen!" Navi cried out, spiralling up into the sky, "taste the punishments that you deserve! Foul demon, roast in the holy flame! _Faerie Fire_!"

The speech caught everyone's attention, and staring up, the Gerudo were glad Navi was on their side. For the clouds had started accumulating above Navi, and started going through a myriad of colours. Before anyone could respond, small specks no larger than a grain of sand started raining down from the clouds, igniting into glowing blue flames and homed in on Shukaku.

Each collided successfully despite how he writhed around and exploded in a small dazzle of light. After five seconds of continuous pummelling, the holy magic imbued into each fire reduced the black fire surrounding him substantially. However, since the spell was meant to be cast by a fountain's worth of fairies or a Great Fairy to get a noticeable result, each hit felt like a fly landing.

The real attack came when Navi shot down like a comet, magic condensing around her and a white flame flickering into existence. With a loud explosion, she collided right into Shukaku's face, releasing her discharge of power.

With a roar, Shukaku vainly tried to swing at her before dropping his sword to grab his eye. Seething with anger, his reduced black fire erupted yet again furiously, scalding Navi and tossing her aside. As he reached to grab his katana, Nabooru could see that he was now one eye blind.

Yet for all the damage inflicted onto him, he just seemed to be getting stronger, a point proven when his wild swing created a trench in the sand.

Link finally found a spirit strong enough and not evil enough to help. Thinking back to when Farore pretty much forced him to summon an ice sprite to help protect him from the fireballs she lobbed around, Link grasped onto the tendril of the spirit's passing and called out.

"Please answer," Link muttered, sweat pouring down his face from the desert heat and navigating through the spiritual plane.

"Answer what?" Someone responded. With a jump, Link opened his eyes to see a misty figure sitting in midair right in front of him.

Staring intently, Link thought that he could almost identify who the spirit was. The figure faded in and out of his vision, but Link thought he could remember his face...

"Oh, you recognise me? I'm afraid you met me in less fortunate grounds, so driven by hatred was I, but I still remember you." The spirit smiled genially, sticking out an arm for a handshake.

"The name's Maxim."

Suddenly, Link's eyebrows flared up. "Oh, you're the ice phantom back in Kakariko village!"

Maxim winced at that. "Don't use the word phantom; it makes me feel so... evil."

"Uh, ghost?"

"Don't rub it in that I'm dead."

"Spectre?"

"Spectre, fancy word. I almost forgot what it meant. So what do you need?"

Link smiled slightly. "Well, there's a demon fighting and physically, it's getting impossible to beat. I was thinking that you could help us fight it."

Surveying the outside, Maxim commented, "We are in the desert, meaning the demon is fighting the Gerudo. Why should I help them? Just because I don't hate them anymore doesn't mean I don't dislike them." Slowly, he started to fade out of vision.

"Well, there's a Sheikah fighting as well..."

 Instantaneously he reappeared. "By patriotism, what are you waiting for? Move it, blockhead!" Gesturing with his hands, the spectre teleported away.

Link wondered why celestial beings seemed to enjoy insulting him.

Nabooru was starting to tire from all the dodging, and now had minor cuts on her arms and cheeks. Malik was struggling to get back to his feet since he suffered a heavy blow to his knees, courtesy of Shukaku's elbow.

Just as Shukaku turned around to deal with him while he was on the ground, Malik flipped on a mask of compassion to stall the blow long enough to roll out of it. It was pitiful, their position – Nabooru had gotten poisoned by the fires again and had stopped fighting to deal with it internally while drinking a red potion, and Malik couldn't even get to his feet. And they were fighting a crippled half-blind demon that couldn't think straight and used basic attacks.

"Oh, get up kid. That big ol' nasty demon isn't so big and nasty." A voice commented from above. Looking up, a bluish figure was floating right in front of him.

"Wha?" Malik voiced, confusion written through his masked face.

"You're in a bit of a fix, eh? Oh well, it's up to the great Maxim to save the day. Allow me to teach you something." Without any warning, he dived right into Malik.

With a bright glow of blue, cold started to radiate off Malik. His eyes started turning to a frostier hue, glowing in the colour. As Shukaku rushed to bash his skull in, it was amazing to see how fast his reflexes were improved by. As he jumped into the sky, Malik tossed down a single throwing knife, but the difference then was that it was created solely of ice.

Shukaku roared as the knife plunged into his waist and frost started spreading from there. Malik dispassionately hopped up close and thrust his knife deep into his chest, eyes narrowing as a spurt of ice coated it. Shukaku, now furious and injured, abandoned the sword to swipe at Malik.

It would have been successful if it wasn't for Malik swiping back.

Creating two knives of ice, Malik started hacking at the arm coming to him, chipping it away at an incredible rate as flesh fell down frozen. He then sunk them both into Shukaku again, knocking him to the ground as frostbite started claiming him at an alarming rate.

As Malik towered above Shukaku, an icy dagger ready to be plunged, the magic waned out. Blinking, Malik groaned and clutched his head before falling unconscious.

Shukaku was about to rip him apart with his teeth when Nabooru plunged her scimitar into his neck.

"Well, well, aren't we all full of surprises." She softly muttered, watching the dead Shukaku dissolve away before grabbing Malik and heading back in.

Still at the entrance of the Spirit Temple, Link fell to his knees, adorned with sweat and panting.

"Curse it," he heaved, clutching his arms as if he was freezing, "why is it they always leech mana off me? Reza gets my blood boiling, and Malik now freezes it!"

A passing spirit unknown to him nodded sympathetically, commented about tax enforcers and their greed before departing.

The following week passed uneventfully. The Gerudo still stayed on guard, slightly higher than before while some went off to collect the mines that didn't explode. Reza still wasn't allowed to move, and everyday she was stuck in bed drinking a red potion in the morning and soup.

"My stomach won't be able to handle solids yet, they say." Reza grumbled to Sierra, who nodded as she listened in, "but one more day of soup and I think I'll swear it off forever."

Malik had recovered within a few hours or so, but the moment he did he was swarmed by questions, which was paused as food was swarmed by him. Engulfing enough food the feed a patrol group for a day, he promptly went back to sleep, ending the questions.

Link was on the training routine Reza had undergone earlier, which involved running around in a weighted vest and stuff. Presently he had to kick a ball through a hoop his chest height above the ground and twenty metres away two hundred times per leg and strapped onto his ankles were weights. It was hard enough with all that, but it was even harder since Navi, who surprisingly didn't burn all the excess mana in her last stunt, was having fun playing goalie. Sweat pouring down his face, Link flopped onto the ground for a break.

"Come on Link! You only got eighty seven in with your left foot! Don't forget you still have to do your right! Come on!" Navi laughed heartily, floating around the hoop in lazy circles.

"In a minute, Navi, in a minute." He moaned, allowing the thirsty sand to absorb whatever sweat that didn't evaporate.

A month after that everyone was well and up again. Reza was told not to fight or do anything vigorous, but she was allowed to eat solids and walk. Now that she could eat 'proper grub' as she dubbed it, Nabooru had set a feast for everyone.

Apparently there were different types of feasts within the Gerudo tradition. When Link defeated Fierce Reza, he was given a congratulations feast. Now, they were having a victory feast, which involved more food and to the dislike of Malik, Link and Navi, more chillies and peppers.

"Come on kiddo! You can eat more than that!" Nabooru chuckled, piling Link's plate with more curry beef. Before he could even comment on that, she started lathering it with the sauce and adding a chilli on top for cosmetic value.

"Ah, thanks." Link said weakly, before slowly ladling it down his throat.

Malik wasn't doing any better, as Sierra wanted to see how much her 'funny man' could take before he went red in the face. He was already red, but now she was filling it up to see what other body parts changed colour. Heck, the tip of his fingers had already changed into a pinkish hue.

"You don't look so well," Reza commented as she dipped her bread into chilli sauce. To her left, four Gerudo were having a contest on who could eat the most bowls of chilli noodles, and each had already went through five and didn't look like they were stopping soon. "I think you should get some water." She gestured to a tank.

Malik was about to nod and thank her when Sierra added in, "Aw, but if he does, that means I'll have to restart my experiment again! His toes haven't gone red yet!" Face souring, he sat back down again and cried internally.

An hour passed with more eating before Nabooru called for their attention.

"From the previous attack, we can safely assume it has something to do with our friend Link's quest." Nabooru spoke, yanking Link up from his seat (causing him to drop his drink on Navi, much to her relief). "His quest, if you do not know, was prophesized long ago and it has been decided that a sword shall be created. Someone who controls demons and Shadow obviously wishes to go against him."

With a deep breath, she continued. "Therefore, I propose that we open all our texts for him to search through involving forging. Let no secret remain hidden if it is even about the characteristics of iron. If what Link is doing is against the minds of whoever attacked us, I say let us help him. Does anyone disagree?"

Everyone chattered among themselves at that statement, but no one raised their hands. Slowly, however, one hand shot up.

"Yes, Reza?" Nabooru enquired at her troubled face.

"Well," Reza said looking a bit embarrassed as well, "the scrolls my parents gave us were meant to be kept within the family and as marriage gifts. It would be... disrespectful to just simply give them away."

Nabooru paused for a moment. "So?"

Reza blinked, and turned beet red. "So? I can't just give them, that'll be insulting my mother!"

Nabooru shrugged. "Then don't. As I still see it, you still have one contract to fulfil. Nothing's wrong."

As Reza grumbled and sunk into her chair, trying to ignore Sierra's snickers, Link could only blink in confusion.

"What contract?"

"Oh, she'll tell you in her own time. But seriously, other than that, are there any objections?"

With no reply, it had been decided: all texts in the Gerudo Valley now were available to Link's eyes.

A/N: After a long wait, voila – my work has been completed. It was mainly the battle in the middle that put me off – how would you continue a battle from three different perspectives? In the end, I just said hey, and went along with it. Sorry if the fight sounded (read) a bit wishy washy.

In regards to the reviews:

Thief of Baghdad: It was probably you that prompted me to continue. This morning I typed up the 3500 odd words in response to your review. Amazing, what a few words do for your confidence...

LunaticChaos: Damn, copy-and-pasting your name gets a bit annoying, since Word wants me to separate the two words first... You wrote more fanfiction than I, so perhaps your quality is worse in your eyes as you have to spread it? Possibly, but I still think your efforts are commendable.

H7: Well, one of the reasons why this took so long was because I played D2. My Assassin now has a shadow battle cestus! I now have ¾ of all unique claws! Well, providing you're on US West we can play together. Otherwise, pity, pity. Actually, when I look back at my story, the Gerudo are quite capable, if they were able to hold off a tide of demons. I'll just chalk up the blood excuse for their skills rusting somewhat.

Lunatic Pandora1: How many people have lunatic in their pen name? I'm not sure, but so far 2! Well, I just hinted at a bit of romance in this story, and I hope that's satisfying enough. I'm not really a romance writer, but I can hint at it occasionally. Suggest anything within reason, and I'll see whether the plot of the story is malleable enough to follow that course.

Well, that's all for this story. Unless I've hit the pit or struck the gong in Diablo 2, the next updates should take less time – hopefully.

Oh yeah, just something I remembered to do: the definition (of mine) between mana and magic. Mana is a raw source, magic is it processed. You store mana, you create magic. See? Simple. In a bridge, the steel is the mana, the bridge is the magic. All magic's made from mana.

Just a note – have you ever wondered how _weird_ the word 'proper' sounds? Just repeat it in your head. There's another word, but I forgot.


	19. Interlude 1: Shukaku's thoughts

Interlude: Shukaku's thoughts

These humans... for one such as frail as themselves, they posture themselves as the strong, the mighty. I have taken siege of this desert fort, yet they still persevere throughout the onslaught.

Amusing.

This woman... Nabooru... she attempts to fight off the Black Fire. The Fire is merely a creation from our anguishes, a creation that brings forth from the bowels of a man's despair the fear that will surpass all thoughts. I have tasted this fire – it runs through me and all of us – and it takes amazing strength of will to accept the challenge of fighting fear. After all, how do you fight a fear you're afraid to fight? I can, my entire family can, merely because we have nothing else to do...

... but fight.

We have faced torment beyond belief, and my people starved from the consuming plague of Hell. You can imagine by its name, my home world does not support any luxuries or time to relax. I have seen children die the moment they're born, merely because the drastic air temperatures dropped suddenly at such an inopportune time.

Yet these humans... they haven't faced such peril. They do not have such motivations for fighting, yet they still hold out. My brother Shikaku had been claimed hero for creating the first channel from this world's mana flowing lines to ours, and is been kept in cruel suspension to keep the channel connected. Death is a mercy we cannot allow him, not yet.

So I fight. I fight for the glory of my world, I fight for the safety of my people, I fight for the pride of my lineage.

I fight for the release of my brother.

Shikaku had created his channel in a middle of a battle against that little boy. He was the smartest among us three, and given the circumstances it was an amazing flash of ingenuity did the channel exist. He was spared of death, a move that enrages me as it gives me comfort, and is being kept alive and slowly feeding power back to our home.

Should I be able to create another channel, one with a firmer connection to the planet's energies, then merciful death will be granted to my brother. He will be released back into the Cycle. Earlier I had prayed to our Gods for success and retribution, and they had answered with a gift.

So I lead this diminishing force against the desert fort, sending a few arts by the Black King to open the channels with me as the pillar, and none have so far opened the channels yet. Part of me thinks that this is due to them being locked in fiery combat, yet the rest of me knows is because they have been destroyed.

Ah, so these humans have pulled out a new trick from their sleeves. That boy with blue hair now wields the might of ice. It is a pity I did not bring any of the channel gems along as a magic leeching field, believing that only the little boy could wield such a force. It had been my assumption that the sheer force of arms would crush this stronghold.

We have heard of the mistakes created by assuming, and I am affected by that.

I look around, and through the reddened vision granted by our Gods' gift I see that none of my channel group and my war force remains. The odds are understandably against me. My brother Shikaku would have run, if he was in the same circumstances.

I am not my brother, not the one gifted with intelligence above all.

I fight.

Shikaku brought honour unto my family, and I will not discard his final donation by running as a coward. To return without success is to bring despair upon my people, just as it is to fight without hope. I will die a death by the sword, not by the guillotine or the knife.

I can tell when failure is near. I pray now, to the Black King, the Gods up strong, and to my last living brother that he will succeed.

Shikaku is now merely a puppet held in the hands of survival.

Shukaku will die from the act of revenge.

And Shakaku, may he finally bring victory among us. We three swore this oath, an oath we'll upheld beyond death:

Our people will not fall to the conquering grip of Hell, for we'll pave a road of freedom and escape.

As the fires start consuming me, an ironic thought comes to mind, removing all traces of remorse from failure.

Despite what these humans might think, we're not fighting our way into their world; we're fighting our way out of ours.

A/N: Huh. I just thought of adding this interlude to prevent the gap from chapters being entered from being too long. I hope you guys enjoyed it, even thought it is fairly short (787 words only). Tell me what you think; this chapter was meant to be a thought-provoking one, entailing deep into the reasons behind everything. I sort of liked it, even though I just made it up on the spot.

Now, in response to the reviews:

H7: Ah, it doesn't matter that you took so long. I understand that some problems do crop up now and then, and sometimes I even forget to review yours. No harm done. Yeah, the Gerudo definitely can fight, which makes me wonder why they're called thieves, as stealing is thought of as a clandestine art of stealth. They're probably more like plunderers. Gerudo Plunderers. Ech. Doesn't sound right.

LunaticChaos: Whatever your reasons, you still have an excellent mind working. I sometimes get bored of doing whatever (it's really annoying when I get bored of getting bored) so always break off to do something else (hence the delays between the chapters – me playing games). You just answer to the calls of interest differently. I just try to bunch up every single idea I have into one remote piece of art, and I pray that it won't sound funky in the end.

Lunatic Pandora1: Ah, it's great to know that someone thinks my story 'rocks', as you put it. Don't I love the... well, love. Huh. As I may not have been very clear on the arm guards, those are the things that allow Link to connect to the spirit realm. They have the bonus of storing massive amounts of mana too. Why, if this was a future world, they would have a built in MP3 player if things went my way.

Thief of Baghdad: Verbosity... well, you've definitely fixed that. I've never seen so many long words in a single review... I need to read more often. Well, I've read your description of yourself in your page and I have to say, if you could supply such a detailed, pleasing and helpful comment, you should have no problems becoming a published author. Thanks for the encouragement, as well.

Now, with regards to the seal – why is it a sword? Main reason is that Nabooru suggested it. Another reason is because it's very important later in the story. Another reason is that Link's sword broke, so he might as well kill two birds with one stone. My explanations may seem a bit flimsy, but all things considered, the first seal – the Master Sword – is a sword (duh... I should be whacking myself from making that comment). It comes to reason that he'll follow the tradition and make another sword as well. And that if opening the first seal releases Ganondorf, they might want an adequate weapon to fight him. Still a flimsy excuse, but I'll explain in detail later. And yeah, I'll enjoy your contributions – just tell me your e-mail and we'll get cracking!

Well, that's all for now. The next chapter should come around definitely before the sky starts falling, so wait until then (which you obviously won't, luxuriating in the creations by other authors J).


	20. Plight of the Bumbling Fairy

[A/N: Damnation, seems to have a problem where it's not noticing my asterisks any more. Can you see this? asterisk whee hee more asterisks. Now, I'll just use dashes to separate scenes... –grumbles-]

Chapter 19: Plight of the Bumbling Fairy

Reza grimaced at the foul concoction Link deposited in front of her. It frothed, it twirled, it stank like heck and was of a nasty green colour (imagine mucus). Warily, she picked it up and examined it from the side of the vial.

"Well, drink it." Link said, pouring an entire pot full of it into flasks.

"Are you sure it's safe?" Reza said, disgustedly turning her head away from taking a sniff.

Malik had gone to forage some wood while Reza and Link stayed to set up camp. Link had decided that fixing Navi up would be the first priority, so with Reza packaging as many tomes and scrolls about weaponry onto her horse, they left the Fortress. To prevent aggravation of her stomach injury, Malik and Link chose to go by foot while she went on horse to keep the speed slow.

It was a pity Epona only allowed Link and Malon to ride her, for that would have given them a quicker journey by letting Reza ride her. Instead, Malon rode forth as a scout, picking out flatter grounds nearer to trees for shade and stability, also for wood.

With a wince Reza finally swallowed, grimacing and face discolouring from the taste. She coughed slightly, shuddered at its feeling in her stomach and then lay back.

"I think I would rather deal without it." She groaned, staring at the sky with hopes of the pain going away.

"Well, you'll have to tough it for a while, because you're going to be drinking it for a long time." With that Link gestured to the flasks stored with the drink inside. "It promotes healing at least, and within a week you should be able to take off those bandages."

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed, replaying the fight in her mind, "damn, I wish I knew how the Blacks did it."

Link raised an eyebrow at this, "Blacks? What did they do?"

"To us we just call them as the Black, but to others its Gerudo Assassins, or Ghosts. Nabooru started that group around three years ago, slightly after she was in control. They have a special trick of becoming transparent, and while transparent they can go through anything, as anything can go through them."

"Whoa." Link muttered, surprised. "I didn't know you guys knew how to do that. Makes sense why they're called Ghosts."

"We don't, only Nabooru does. She just picked the best of the best and trained them on how to use their spirit to do what they do. There are only two dozen people who know how to do it, however." Reza nodded after a moments thought.

"How come they didn't help fight? Such a skill would have definitely helped." Link questioned, thinking of all the ways they could have solidified suddenly when passing through the Dark Copies and ripping apart ribcages. Shuddering, he banished the thought.

"It's still an experimental group. And Nabooru can only hold it for half a minute at best and everyone's worse than she is. Also, they can't use weapons and have to wear skimpy clothing. That makes it rather obvious where their precious organs are." Reza noted factually, frowning a bit as her stomach cramped.

"Did I hear someone say skimpy clothing?" A voice said from above. Hopping off the tree, Malik landed with his legs just to the side of Reza's face, causing her to go cross-eyed for a second. "I got some wood." Before she could damage his in any way, he quickly hopped away – and just in time, as her hand went up in a half-hearted grab.

"Do that again and I'll be the one causing your impotence, Blue boy." Reza growled out, waving a knife vaguely in the air.

Malik squeaked, dropped the branches he was carrying on a sleeping Navi (scaring the daylights out of Link) and climbed back up the tree.

Panicking Link shoved all the branches aside in his haste to pull Navi out of there. His fears were unfounded thankfully, as the branches supported themselves above her. For all the excess energy she had been given, she continued to snore.

"I wasn't heading back to the Kokiri forest for her to get injured, Malik," Link gruffly said, gently cradling Navi to his shoulder, "it was rather more for the reason to cure her."

Malik squeaked again and nodded from the foliage he was hiding in.

"Sorry... so what was that I heard about skimpy clothing?" Malik apologised, hoping that his question would detract Link's silent fury. Link for one thing didn't express much with his voice, Malik concluded, but his eyes... The spectrum ranged from merciful and compassionate to cruel and furious.

Reza rolled her eyes at Malik's obvious attempt. Nevertheless, she continued. "It takes a lot of energy to force your body into something less physical – I think Nabooru used a fancier word than that – and even though it doesn't take much more to bring stuff with you, it takes a lot more control. So much, in fact, that you'll be paralysed to the spot just trying to maintain the state, your entire mind devoted to that act. Someone once tried it, and stopped breathing."

The silence from that was broken only by the rustling of the grass.

And Malik falling from the tree as Epona crashed by.

"Hi guys!" Malon cheerily said, dismounting from Epona and accidentally trampling on Malik. "There's a bit of turf over there that has some good shade and it has a small stream flowing by for water!"

There were only two main rivers in Hyrule – the Zora River, and the Gerudo River that flowed into Lake Hylia. That was probably why the population was so sparse, Link mused, with only two main sources of water. But there were other rivers, though their size was comparable to a stream.

Link briefly wondered why the Goddesses built Hyrule so. Surely if they wanted the population to rise, there would be more rivers and tributaries to cover the fields. The grass lived solely because of the nearly daily rain and the Ranch did because of a well which had to go over fifty metres down to extract water (it was no wonder Ingo was a bit grumpy, needing to reel around 100 metres just for a bucket of water).

Ah well, Link decided, not my problem. The Goddesses probably were worried about population control.

"Whoa dude," Navi breathed, staring over Link's shoulder, "check those waves."

The waves in question were really the ripples on the stream. They were nothing special, but in Navi's drunken state a rock playing dead would have amused her. Quickly Malik collected some water in a pan to boil, and just as fast Malon was ready to knock him in.

"Would you please stop doing that?" Malik spluttered, wiping his sopping wet hair away from his eyes. Grumbling he hauled himself out.

"Sorry," Malon said with the decency to look embarrassed, "it's just that doing stuff like that gets rather addictive, if you know what I mean. I don't know what possessed me."

"Neither do I," Malik muttered to himself, "and I'd like to keep it that way."

"The pan is floating away." Reza pointed out helpfully.

With a curse Malik ran off to grab the pan, plotting revenge as he did so.

-

Navi awoke with a start, feeling the pains you'd expect from a hangover. However, she didn't get the sometimes unwanted sensation of proper thought as well, stumbling around in Link's palm and blearily looking around.

The few thoughts that went through her mind were going along the lines of: damn, that some mean juice.

Her vision paused for a moment when she looked at Malon. Peering from her vantage point, it appeared that she had some little black horns sticking out of her head. Slapping herself did nothing to dispel the vision.

So that could only mean...

"Back, vile cretin, back!" yelled Navi as she suddenly surged from Link's hand, rushing at her impressive full charge pace (in her pained state, it was along the speeds of a sloth) right at Malon's face. Everyone turned to stare at her, with Malon blinking as Navi started slapping her forehead.

From her perspective Navi could see a dark being lurch out of Malon and the horns disappearing. Charging up her fist with the excess energy still residing in her, Navi threw a sloppy punch at the little black globe, which dispelled it from her vision.

"Damn evil sprites," she muttered, hovering back to Link despite everyone staring at her, "them and their stupid prank jokes."

 Padding in circles on his palm, she curled up like a cat and returned to her snoring.

"Ok..." Malon said, rubbing her forehead, "that was a bit unexpected."

"Evil minds lurk throughout the land," Navi muttered out in her sleep, "casting their sight upon those that bask without."

Link paused at that, raising an eyebrow. Hopefully Navi was just being a bit light-headed and delusional. It wouldn't do if she suddenly became a prophet of doom.

Hopefully.

-

Later on when they fully finished setting up camp Malik returned with the pan, sopping wet with bits of algae caught in his hair (sending Reza into spasms of laughter gripping her stomach, which turned out to be quite the unwise move), a fish sticking out of his pocket the pan in one hand and splinters in the other with his eyes burning with fevered fury.

"This place is cursed, I tell you." He grinded out between the yelps from plucking the splinters. "Some things kept running into me from mid-air and knocking me back into the river. So when I fall in, one of them dive in and mash my face against the ground. The indignation! And after when I finally grabbed the pan, those things lifted my legs out of the water, so I had to grasp onto a branch to prevent myself from drowning! This place is cursed!"

Reza nodded silently. Gazing from her position at a tree base, she could almost see a few silhouettes tagging along and following Malik. They were extremely vague and whenever she concentrated on them they disappeared.

"Perhaps when Navi said something about evil sprites, she was right." She stated, trying to see past the veil protecting whatever it was following Malik.

Link munched on that thought for a while. "Do you think sprites are just like fairies?"

"In the Desert our lore on the mystical is limited to spirits, souls and ghosts. I have no clue on how sprites even look like."

"Ha!" Malik suddenly bounced up, accidentally slamming his cranium into an overhanging tree branch. After groaning and patting his neck and skull, he continued in a more subdued tone, "The Sheikah beat you on that then. Our knowledge spans across from the promising future of science to the wondrous tale of mythology from the past. We have recorded all, analysed all, and understood all." Chuckling and looking as pompous as one with a battered head could, he puffed at his nails. "Something as minor as differences between sprites and fairies is trivial to us."

Reza blinked, rubbed the earwax out of her ear and blinked again. "So... what are the differences?"

Malik shrugged. "No one accused me of paying attention in class."

She groaned, slapping her hand to her forehead and muttering about idiots. Link shook his head. "I'll take a gamble then."

Rifling through his pouch, Link plucked out his Great Fairy mask. Wriggling his fingers, he concentrated to unseal the bonds he placed before wearing it. As deceptively harmless the mask could look – all it did was alter your scent and aura slightly to a more fairy-like one, if it was in the hands of a fairy hunter, it would be extremely dangerous. So every mask had a seal.

Peering through the mask, Link ignored Malik's laughs at wearing a 'girly looking mask' and Reza's almost stupefied and incredulous look and searching for the sprites. One additional gift he never told anyone about the Great Fairy mask was that it also allowed you to detect fairies, so it did look weird with a boy in green wearing a red coloured mask with floating sparkling hair.

The first thing that caught his 'fairy detector' was Navi, her being the closest of course. That was a problem that Link had to keep ignoring as he usually always had a fairy partner nearby. But looking past her and near some bushes, there were seven globes of purple light that appeared to be... giggling?

Link blinked and took off his mask. Gesturing for Reza to get up, he strode towards the area he saw them last, holding a ward written by the Palace librarian. The etchings on the sheet of paper looked like a four year old discovering crayons, and the ward exuded no magic at all, but it did make a good luck charm. It would have, at least, if he wasn't intending to set it on fire.

There was a myth on how running water cleansed evil from a person or object and how fires scared away evil from approaching, as some fire god (goddess?) declared death to all forms of darkness that encroached too close. Link didn't actually believe in them, for he fought enough monsters in the water temple and fire temple to know fire and water did jack, but it didn't hurt to put that extra faith into the supernatural.

"I know you seven are there," Link whispered to himself, applying a bit of Din's magic to the ward, "so show yourselves!"

His reply was giggling and then something forcefully tugging his ankle, making him trip. Groaning, Link rubbed his head and got back up, forgetting the smouldering ward next to the bushes.

"So that's how you want to play things, uh?" Link growled, eyes narrowing and charging Din's fire to surround him as an aura. Malon and the rest were surprised to see a red corona morph into existence around him, but Malik was quick to pick up a mask in hopes of tracking down those sprites.

As he donned the masks, however, Malik noticed something different about Link. For one thing, Link's emotions were all jumbled up: just a moment ago he was calm and wary, now he was furious and getting narrow-minded. The other thing was the foreign flavour he sensed.

Reading emotions isn't the easiest thing to do inside another person's mind. Simpler than reading their minds altogether, yes, but due to its vagueness emotion reading is hard to actually understand. Unlike what most people believed, emotions weren't stated like words to be read; being so complex that actually attempting to read it as such would take far too long. Rather, they were more along the lines of colours mixed together. Malik however thought of them more as tastes and chose to identify them by that. If there was a foreign taste that meant...

"Hey Link! Snap out of it!" Malik shouted at him, quickly assembling his legs into running form, "I think these things possess on touch!"

As expected of someone with an external mind working against him, Link hardly noticed what Malik said. He did however notice that sudden weight on his back and a fist repeatedly slamming itself on his cranium.

"Idiot." Reza groaned, shaking her head at the display. "He can't even remember that Link was on fire."

That mistake was soon corrected, Malik squealing in pain and flinging himself into the stream.

Reza slapped her forehead and sighed. 'Blue Boy didn't even look to see which patch of the had less stones.' With an internal sigh of shame, she settled comfortably at the tree base, choosing to watch the drama unfold instead of exerting herself to help. She was injured, anyway, and Link can take care of himself, and Malik knows what he's doing.

Reza paused at that last string of thought before reversing her decision.

Back where Link was, the red halo surrounding him vanished mainly due to the pounding headache he suddenly received. Wondering briefly why Malik had to be so brutal in his remedies, he quickly placed his thoughts back towards the evil sprites that Navi stated there were. The Great Fairy mask however revealed their departure, although they seemed to still be giggling, mocking him and jeering in their silent demeanour.

Shrugging it off as an attitude problem of theirs, Link turned to report his findings-

-to have a bedraggled face mopped with blue hair stare at him up close.

"Guys, the sprites le– Farore!" Link swore, startled by the sudden image of Malik's face.

"Pain," Malik moaned, clawing at Link's shirt as he slowly fell to his knees, "Nayru help me I'm in pain..."

 "I can see that," Link grunted, trying to dislodge Malik's hands, "there's not much I can  – hey, leggo of me!"

"Pain!" Malik suddenly shot up, raising his index finger to the skies and nearly slamming his fist into Link's jaw, "Oh, the pain!" After that he slumped back onto the ground, squeaking from the impact.

While Link was busy trying to drag Malik (who often suddenly spouted his present condition) back to the shade, Reza was busy scooping soil onto a bush.

"Link," Reza growled from irritation as she started flinging the soil instead, "your magical fire, how long does it burn?"

Link shrugged, trying to shake off Malik's grip to his ankle, "It depends – usually only a few seconds on an animal or animated thing, though it can burn for quite a long time on torches and dead plants. Why?"

"You seem to have dropped that piece of paper you was carrying."

Link paused in a moment of recollection. "What piece of paper?"

"The one you set on fire?"

"Ugh... the pain..." Malik moaned in the silence as Link digested that bit of information.

"Damn, that's bad." Quickly he kicked Malik off and rushed to help pour the soil in hopes to stop a larger spread of the fire.

Sweat rolled down Reza's forehead from the heats of the fire as it progressively got bigger. The large scoops of dirt being dumped onto it didn't seem to slow it down the slightest, and were it to persist there would be a forest fire that would grow out of scope, dealing more damage than its present form of a roasting bush.

Reza finally gave up on dumping soil on the bush. Instead, she knocked Link away, flattened it by beating it with her hands, and throwing her faith and life in the hands of the gods, rolled over the fire.

Link could only stare in shock at what Reza was doing. He knew that he said that the fires didn't last long on living things, but what Reza was doing was near suicide. Getting back to his feet, he rolled Reza out of the flames before they did any permanent damage. The good thing was that the fire did go out.

"What are you, crazy?" Link yelled at her, shaking her shoulders lightly as Malik slugged his way to the stream to get the water Link requested. The burns were nothing serious, but the bandaging of her stomach wound had been badly burnt, luckily not fusing to her skin, and the wound had opened slightly from the scrubbing against the sharp edges of the bush, and to top it off her arms were scorched and scratched from the whole experience.

"You were injured when you did that! Why on Earth did you do that, anyway? Sure, it worked, but I'm sure it must have hurt!"

Reza waved off his concern, nodding in thanks when Malik deposited the pan of water in front of her. "Relax Link. I'm from the Desert and so more used to high temperatures than you are. Besides, that fire skill I get from drawing off your power has made me used to flames. The only real damage I've taken is when ripping up my bandages and maybe my hands as well."

Link wringed his hands in frustration as Malon helped Reza by rubbing a soaked sponge across the burnt skin. Dropping his hands in defeat, he mumbled a message along the lines of "don't do that again" before plodding himself next to Malik. Navi crawled out of his pocket soon after that, choosing to enjoy basking in the sun over resting in a squashed up area.

 "I can see stars." Navi remarked, pointing to the clear blue sky. Ignoring the confused look Link gave her, she continued, "They swirl in circles, always spinning. Never stopping, those stars keep moving. What are they turning around though?" As she delved deeper into her own thoughts, Link chose to tune her out, thinking about the present problems.

Fighting was a common theme that happened all over Hyrule; it didn't matter if it was as petty as a heated disagreement between to shoppers or something as important as the battle he had against Ganon he had a few years back – or a few years ahead, depending on how you thought of it. The most common ones they had however were the night time run-ins with the Stalchids and the odd deformed creature or two (more commonly known as monsters, but Link had different ideas on what a monster truly was). In that aspect, Reza could not fight, and would be in theory be defenceless should there be a more serious commotion. The fact that she rolled over the magic of Din's Fire didn't help any.

That spell was like an arrow: once released, it knows no difference between friend and foe. The only protection from it would be to be on the right side when it was cast, and for the Din's Fire, that would be inside before it erupts and even then magical protection was needed. For a short period of time, the Fire would be self-sustaining, needing no fuel, but it was even worse if there was something to burn, like the shrubbery that Reza had previously rolled over. No matter what Reza said about being accustomed to fire, it must still have hurt (and a sideward glance at her wincing each time the sponge scrubbed a slightly red area proved it), and with her injuries Link wouldn't risk her heading into battle, and to prevent that the best way would not to engage in it at all.

Mentally calculating when the sun will set and the distance from their position to the entrance of the Kokiri Village, Link decided that if they could get their before night arrived, at the very least Reza could rest in the Village while he went to get help with Navi. To get there in time would mean...

"Hey Malik, I bet that my horse would be a lot faster than yours." The only way to get there in time would be to dash across. So why not have some fun?

"Ha! This Kakariko breed might look a bit chubby... actually; I've been feeding it too much – but nonetheless! My horse is one of the sturdiest of the horse races in my town! They were the pee wee leagues really, but still..." Malik trailed off mumbling. Link sighed, watching as Malik's words spiralled down getting more degenerative as it went. Best to challenge his pride a bit.

"In fact, I'm sure Epona would be a lot faster with both me, Reza and my equipment than yours would be with both you and Malon with the other horse as backup." Actually, Link wasn't sure that Epona would even allow Reza to ride her, but hopefully with Link around she would be a bit more accepting to the new rider.

"You're on!" Malik hopped to his feet, packed the gear and accidentally splashing Reza with the remaining water, apologised as he stole the pan and sponge and in less than a minute, prepared his own horse and Malon's. "Whoever gets to the entrance first wins!" he yelled at Link as he grabbed Malon in a fireman carry and launched himself onto the horse, leaving behind Epona, a dazed Link and a soaked Reza.

"No respect, that's what." Reza grumbled. "Wait till I find the reason why he did that and I'll wring his neck."

Link chuckled nervously, hoping that she won't find out he was the reason. "Eh heh, sure. Let's go, shall we?"

-

To their fortune the only thing Epona disliked about Reza was the amount of water she was dripping, but thankfully allowed Reza to ride with Link. A bit of speed had to be sacrificed for a smoother ride, so after listening to Malik's gloating on beating him and Malon's addition that it was her at the reins, Link managed to get to the Great Deku Tree.

"Hallo Markus!" Navi suddenly spouted when Link reached the Tree. "It's great to see you again! How's your holiday in the sewers?"

The Great Deku Tree raised an eyebrow. "When you said she was a bit excited, I did not think it'll be this... excitable." Nonetheless, he was still amused with Navi's ramblings. She continued on talking about how raspberries did not make good toilets for a while.

"Well, is there any way to fix this? Volvagia had suggested waiting it off, but I really don't feel like handling her in this state for a few months." Link asked.

The Tree mulled it over for a bit. "Well, did she do anything vigorous lately?"

"Well, someone told me she cast a spell called 'Faerie Fire' earlier on in the desert, and has been a bit more subdued since then. Earlier today she spotted a bunch of sprites and removed one from possessing a friend of mine."

If it were not rooted to the ground and had appendages, the Great Deku Tree would have shrugged and paced. "Well, I am under the assumption that using up that energy would help clear her mind. Perhaps she is willing to rejoin the fairy training program? While she passed her first one, these things often take two to three days of continuous magic usage, so it might help."

"No! Never! Not that!" Navi screamed, floating towards the Great Deku Tree. "Don't ever use a comb for plumbing!"

Link blinked, wondering at the relevance. "I think she said yes."

So within three hours of preparation, Navi had been dragged by other fairies, kicking and screaming about the usage of soap, to the entrance of the training centre. The entrance looked more like a fanciful birdhouse, positioned high on one of the pillars that were connected by bridges. Being so high up it was often in the mercy of rain and sun and was therefore bleached to match the colour of the pillar it resided on.

"Traitors, every one of them are traitors." Navi grumbled to herself. While here she was, working her head off for three straight days, Link and the rest would bask in the lap of luxury, being fed every delicacy the forests had to offer. "Wretched traitors wouldn't even pack me some food." She decided to ignore the fact that none of them knew how to store food in thimble sized containers.

Dejectedly she kicked a monument that was meant to pray to Nayru. Feeling a bit better at the show of aggression, she continued to kick, and kick, and then punch, and punch, and altogether throw a tantrum...

... Until the monument broke.

"Eh? Why do they make such important stuff out of wood nowadays? It breaks so easily." Chuckling to herself, she started whistling nervously as she drifted down the spiralling staircase. Hopefully she'll be gone before anyone realised it was broken. Heck, if she was lucky maybe Nayru herself won't notice!

Navi wondered for a moment why there were stairs in the first place. Every fairy used their wings to get anywhere, so what was the point of having something for feet?

-

To be frank, Malik and Reza's welcome weren't all that warm and encouraging. It was more scary and repelling. It mainly involved a bunch of people half a head shorter poking you. Since they weren't given the chance before, the Kokiri children kept asking questions on where they came from for such peculiar hair colours, if they were worried about becoming a Stalfos if they made the mistake of entering the Lost Woods, why Reza had bandages and so on. A few asked Link why last time he walked in without a fairy and walked out with one, and now walked in with a fairy and walked out without.

After answering as many questions as they were willing and capable of, they managed to enter Link's abode: a tree house.

"Welcome to my glorious home." Link said proudly, gesturing to the room. For a house, it had the most basic of utilities: a bed directly opposite the door, a table and stool in the centre of the room, a toilet system in the far corner and directly opposite that a sink with a bunch of cups and bowls. Compared to the houses of Kakariko, Castletown and the living domains of the Fortress and the Ranch, the 'house' was the barest form of living condition they saw.

"Awfully... empty," Malon pointed out, trying to be as nice about it as possible, "I thought you would have more stuff around here."

"Awfully small," Malik added on, needing only needing six steps to cross from one end of the room to the other, "not much to do he– ow!" He was quickly interrupted by Malon and Reza elbowing him in the ribs.

Link shrugged, although looked slightly sheepish. "Most of the Kokiri don't have any real care of staying at home, unless it rains. When I was with them we always played outside, ate together outside, scavenged for food together outside and pretty much did everything together outside. The houses were really more of a place to sleep, although Mido's house duplicates as a meeting hall when it rains." Continuing on his voice became slightly more nostalgic, a smile adorning his face, "although I can see what you mean by empty. I'm imagining that while I was away everyone else saw to looting my house. All in good fun, of course." His face darkened at that thought.

Reza nodded. She could understand doing everything together, as the Gerudo also lived in quite a close society as well. Those things happened, especially if you lived in the isolated deserts. "Well, when would Navi finish her training course?" she asked, glancing at the children outside playing tag.

"And when would we get to eat?" Malik added on, staring off into space as he imagined roasted boar, fried eggs and all the fruits the forests had to offer.

"It better be in good fun," Link muttered darkly, ignoring what Malik and Reza said, "it better be." He then surveyed his room with the attention of an eagle, mentally noting down what was missing before crawling under the table. Everyone stared at him for a moment as he dragged out a chest that was hiding there, and started scrounging through it.

"Ah, I guess we're not eating now then?" Malik queried disappointedly, a petulant frown on his face. Link's answer:

"Good grief, they robbed me flat!" He turned around, murder glowing in his eyes, and they widened further as he noticed something. "My blanket! They even stole my blanket!"

Growling, he got back to his feet and adorned a forced smile that kept twitching. "Please, enjoy whatever services that haven't been nicked, but I'm off to fetch my items back." Climbing down the ladder, Reza could hear him still grumble, "my blanket, I'm going to throttle whoever took my blanket!"

-

Finally reaching the reception hall, as Navi liked to call it, she raised her nose pompously as trainee fairies glided by, often giving way for her. Might as well act the senior, after all, as there were probably only three fairies above her in the pecking order. Strutting as well as a person could do without feet touching the ground, Navi hovered over to a sofa and after scaring a rookie away, plonked herself onto it with a relaxed sigh.

Ah well, the training couldn't be that bad, if they finally installed the sofas.

"By Nayru, aren't you a sorry sight to behold." A grouchy voice rumbled behind her. One eye looking up, she almost groaned at who she saw.

"Good morning Sergeant Shael. I am pleased to meet you. I am willing to study under the wings of both you and Sergeant Hale. I will follow the appropriate conduct you have designated for all trainees to follow. I will strive for the best–" Navi's monotone droning was cut off as Shael whacked her with a paper fan, his version of a cane.

"Oh hush up; we've received message that you're presently... intoxicated. No matter, I have personally devised a training regime for you to follow that will efficiently, effectively and most certainly purge and cleanse your body of the excess and redundant mana. Providing you follow the strict regulations and rules I have applied in accordance to the situation, you might find... you're not listening, are you?" He sighed exasperatedly as Navi blinked in confusion and rubbed the earwax out

"You said something, doc? I was just reliving the memories of listening to you rant. And boy, do you rant." She suddenly peered at his face closely, unnerving him at the close proximity.

He quickly wiped out all traces of looking startled however as Hale entered. While most fairies glow white with a cheerful pink or purple, all of them could alter that additional colour tint to whatever situation. As Navi had done before, she had on multiple occasions' glowed yellow as she yelled to Link information about whatever monster he was fighting and green when just explaining and pointing stuff out. Hale however always radiated green, being the walking library that she was. She was the only fairy that did so, and the only fairy that wore glasses too.

"Good day to you Navi." Hale said briskly as she inclined her head in greeting. She did not spare Navi the time to respond in kind as she flew off to help some fairies in their studies. Or to the library – she seemed to only do those two things.

"Wow, as chatty as ever." Navi said. "No wonder she never became a fairy partner."

 Shael was about to give Navi a sharp reprimand on respecting authority when in front of authority, but he lost that moment as Navi was suddenly bowled over as a pink glowing buzz slammed right into her.

"Hello o buddy o pal o friend o pal o buddy! Great to see you again! How was life outside the Forest? Is it scary? Is it dangerous? You've got much to tell us! I'm sure even Hale would appreciate the stuff you could tell her!" the animated bubble of speech (a.k.a. Ko the Fairy) chattered into Navi's back.

"Damn, as chatty as ever." Navi wheezed out through Ko's death grip. "No wonder she never became a fairy partner. Good to see you again, Ko."

Shael rolled his eyes at the display of affection. Chuckling lightly at some private joke, he continued, "You might be delighted to know that on some sections of your course Ko will join you as well. Since you two know each other well enough, I believe I won't be needed to go through the preliminary discipline and courtesy rules."

"Cool, you heard that Navi? We get to train together!" Ko jumped up and did a fancy pirouette while Navi was still attached in her arms.

"Damn, I heard that. Now we get to train together." Navi moaned out, falling to the floor while waiting for the world to stop spinning.

-

It could easily pass as watching a comedy, as far as Reza, Malon and Malik were doing. They passed along a bowl full of salted nuts, each with lemonade by their sides as they watched Link reclaim what was his. A painful comedy by far, but it's still comedy nonetheless.

"Hello Link! Do you want to play tag with us?" One cheerful kid waved Link over.

No one would have suspected that he'll be grappled into a submission hold, with Link being all sunny and smiles. "Sure but first," his eyes narrowed evilly as his voice became more menacing, "blanket?"

"Ah, right, your blanket. Um, she took it!" The boy sweated out.

"What, your blanket? No, she took it!" The accused girl defended.

"Blanket? Nope, not me. He took it!" She replied airily, flicking her finger towards another boy.

"I took no one's blanket! He did!" He scowled, giving a sharp glance towards a boy playing boxing.

"It wasn't me! She did!" He hastily replied, kicking in the direction of a dancing girl.

"I stole nothing from you! He took your blanket!" She said in between her moves, pointing back to the boy in Link's hold.

"Ah, right, your blanket. Um, she took it!"

"What, your blanket? No, she took it!"

"Blanket? Nope, not me. He took it!"

Link sighed as this volleyed on for another four or five rounds, everyone adamant in their accusations and defence. It soon became a contest of volume, with the logic that whoever was loudest was right.

-

After leading Navi down another dozen stairways (and ignoring her complaints on needing stairs), Shael led her to a boxing ring. A few fairies were training on it, although to Navi who had seen true combat, their efforts were paltry in comparison.

"... You're kidding, right?" Navi said flatly, looking at the sparring fairies. "I have to train with them?"

Shael raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly. "Worried that they'll be too much for you?"

Navi laughed insanely at that, rolling on the floor as she gripped her sides. That was only for a moment, for she immediately stood up and replied flatly, "No. I could probably clean all their clocks when it's them all against me, even if you're fighting as well." The last time she sparred against Shael, she ended up with a bruised nose, a dislocated knee and purple all over (the skin, not the glow). Now, after watching everyone else fight and doing some fighting of her own when she was away, she was sure that he'll end up in a poor state.

"I'll like to take you up on that offer." If it didn't help her burn off some energy, it'll give him some pleasure beating such ego back into the mud.

Eventually, it did help use up some mana, but it was more her ego beating him and everyone else.

"Woo hoo!" Navi cheered, absently dodging a fist thrown at her jaw and countering with a knee in the gut, "I'm king of the hill! Or queen of the arena!"

"Bad shot!" Navi jeered, exaggerating her block to a kick, grabbing the leg and swinging the fairy like a bat, "You're a hundred years to young to beat me! And I'm not a hundred years old yet!"

"Foul cretins, I'm invincible!' Navi sneered, releasing a rabbit punch to someone's guard, effectively smashing it aside, "I am KING! Or queen..."

The fight went on for quite a while, and was stretched on even further as she chose to play with her opponents.

"I feel like singing," she said cheerfully, slapping aside a attempted grapple, "now what to sing, I wonder?"

 "To be?! Or not to be?!" she bellowed, raising her hands in opera style while her legs kicked everyone away, "that is the question! Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. . . or to take arms against a sea of troubles. . . and by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep, NO MORE!" Navi paused for a moment as she scratched her head. "And by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. . . 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep! To sleep, perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub! For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled of this mortal coil, must give us pause. . ."

She would have continued, but then noticed everyone already groaning on the floor.

"Dimwit," Shael choked out from his pained lungs, "that's not singing."

Navi shrugged and daintily glided off, replying offhandedly, "Who cares? I still whacked the stuffing right out of you. Now, I'm off to play the piano."

Music from a violin soon followed.

-

Link surveyed the six Kokiri he tied to a tree stump. Saying it very slowly, he asked: "Now, who took my blanket?"

"Saria did!"

"Mido did!"

"Navi did!"

"That princess of destiny you mentioned did!"

"The Great Deku Tree did!"

"Your evil twin did!"

Link groaned. It was apparent they were not willing to tell the truth. Well, time for some truth squeezing...

Walking away, Link waved his hand in dismissal. "Ah, it doesn't matter. I'm off to rob you guys, now that you can't move."

The truth came out easily enough after that. But not because they told him.

-

A rather battered Shael led Navi to the area where Hale would continue the course in magic control. Ko was also there, enjoying the act of flinging around small motes of light at the lamps. The area in question was really a library, as indicated by the numerous rows of books on one side, but had another that was bare aside from the circle of runes on the ground.

"Excuse me while I'm off searching for some anaesthetics." Shael bowed and departed. Hale was reading a book, looking all in the world like she never heard him. It was her pushing her glasses up and the slight incline of her head that indicated he even existed in her world.

Hale took her time in folding the page she was reading, and even more in placing the book back. It was with a sigh of resignation did she greet Navi and Ko. But a nod and a gesture to the rune circle could only pass as a greeting.

"Do not worry about damage to the books: a magic containment field has been erected, so nothing should pass this circle. Feel free to demonstrate your skills, both benefiting and lethal on me, for I would like to see what current skills you hold." The command was given in a sharp and serious manner. She erected a barrier around herself and gestured for them to start.

Ko took the initiative by throwing a bunch of wind blades against the shield. Navi never cared to learn such skills; when fighting the beasts Link did, they would only hold the damage of a toothpick: hardly damaging and it'll take poking in areas like the eye to get noticed. The spells Ko was tossing around however would have been deadly to anything their size.

However, fairies, being more docile and passive than anything else, were more known for taking and avoiding damage than dishing it out. Hale was a master of this skill, and was not sweating at keeping a barrier up to take the punishment for her.

One didn't live in danger and not learn any tricks, however. In the depths of Navi's mind she knew that no force she could apply would batter down that shield, but there were some things the shield couldn't block.

"My grandmother has fewer wrinkles than you! Is that poop on your head or is it mean to be hair? I've known guys that look more feminine that you!" Yes, some things could not be blocked.

While Hale looked undisturbed by the insults Navi kept throwing ("Four eyes! Geek! Library dweller! Dust face!"), the barrier was slowly giving way to the wind blades. Eventually, one broke through and Hale only barely dodged to the side.

"Impressive, Ko, you seem to have learnt how to keep your spells efficient, to be able to keep casting for so long. Navi, I haven't seen a speck of magic from you, but living outside the forest certainly has... taught you some things. It would therefore be my duty to educate you in the mystic talents, until you can properly cast an attack spell."

Waving Ko off with the explanation of teaching her later, Hale devoted her attentions back to Navi. "I have to commend your tactic of breaking down my shield. Crush the faith, slay the will." She smiled genially at her.

Navi shuffled her feet, trying to look embarrassed not arrogant. "I picked up some stuff working with Link. That's actually a variation of my 'cheer up' war cry."

Hale paused for a moment. "However," she continued, the smile slowly gaining a tilt to it, "It is in my professional opinion that your magical skills have been neglected for that tactic. As you will need a crash course and so therefore the quickest way to be taught, I will teach you the spells using the quickest way, namely, the hard way."

Navi blinked. "You just didn't like my comments, is that it?"

Hale kept her smile going, but muttered something like 'start dodging, buster' before 'educating' Navi.

-

"Damn. I guess there's no roast boar or fried eggs." Malik lamented as he stared disappointed at his vegetable soup. Living a place surrounded by wood, fire was a thing most of the Kokiri chose to avoid, so they cooked the food at one spot and dished it out. Soup was easy to make and easy to give, so every evening they ate that. Besides, they were vegetarians.

"I didn't know he had a drum kit," Link said happily, sorting out the stuff he took from the others, "but I know he won't have a drum kit anymore!" Cheerfully he played a pattern before shifting it aside.

"This stuff tastes like medicine." Reza choked, staring unhappily at her own bowl. It had a bitter taste that kept making her bite her tongue.

"It is. Earlier I asked the big tree person whether the forest children had any medicine." Malon said. "He pointed me to an empty house and said to rifle through the cabinets for some blackish green powder. I just added it to your soup."

"Ah, you were talking about medicine Saria made." Link added helpfully as he finished organising the items. He would return them anyway, since he'll be leaving again for Death Mountain afterwards, with all the scrolls about forging with him. "Very strong stuff. There's a quote everyone made about it: 'cure a cold with a fever'. A pinch would be enough to stop an epidemic in its tracks, and more would cure this world of disease." Link laughed at that, indicating it was a joke. Taking a sip from the bowl, he winced and shuddered when he bit his tongue. "Ack, how much did you put?"

Malon chuckled nervously, and replied, "A pinch. Thought it'll help Reza heal."

Holding his own nose Link walked off to grab his own bowl of soup. "Oh, it'll help her heal. I would be surprised if she still bears the injuries tomorrow."

Malon didn't really mind the meals, after all, sometimes in the ranch it was her turn to cook, and when she was younger her culinary skills weren't top notch. So when it was her turn, she'd either make sandwiches for everyone or boil whatever  vegetables and meat she could find in hopes they blended together would taste nice. One out of three tries it would work, the other two ended up in the ranch closing temporarily due to 'lack of personnel'.

-

It was through the cool mists of the morning did the sun find Navi. And not in the most pleasant of sights, either. Battered and blasted by spell after spell, one generally loses their good looks for a while. It also drained a good portion of the excess mana as well, her needing it to quite frankly 'not die', as Ko put it. The last part of the course was really more of a field trip, where she was meant to conduct studies on plants within the Lost Woods and pretty much bore the energy out of her. For the first five minutes of her task, it was working magnificently.

"Flower looks normal? Check. Flower looks poisonous? Check. Flower something I won't want to sleep in? Check." Navi yawned as she flittered like a bee from flower to flower, occasionally flying into a tree trunk while she went.

Wincing as she plucked her face out of the bark, she took the moment to admire the force needed to imprint her face into the wood, before bumbling off to examine the next flower.

"Flower looks normal? Check. Flower looks clean? Check. Flower something I want to sleep in? Check." Navi brightened at that, looking around to see whether anyone was acting as surveillance before plummeting with a sigh onto the petals. Life is good, she thought cheerily as she snuggled in for a nap.

At least, good while there aren't anyone watching.

For a brief moment, Navi heard some giggling. Opening her eyes partially, like a radar she passed her senses around the area for other fairies, only to come up blank. Shrugging, she decided it wasn't worth her time.

That was her first thought until someone yanked her out of the flower and into another tree trunk.

 Giving a brief thought on how she looked like a tree-hugger, she snarled and turned around. "Alright," she yelled to the moist air of the forest, "who did that? You want a piece of me?"

Her answer was more giggling, and the appearance of six purple glowing sprites. No wonder she didn't notice them, as she was searching for fairies.

"Alright, you sneaky, wretched little blobs of dung, let's see what you got." With a roar, Navi charged right to the closest one...

...only to be side-tackled by the other.

"Gee, she doesn't really think about tactics much, does she?" one commented snidely, giggling as Navi peeled herself off the tree again. "I wonder how she managed her job outside in the forest."

"She probably didn't," another giggled, "just hid when danger was around and let the little boy be her guardian."

"Or garden, considering how she seems to fancy his hair as a home."

Navi seethed at them. They were probably the same ones that caused such havoc for Malik earlier on outside. A pity that they were one of the few with group tactics, but she was determined to pound the fact the Navi didn't lose in.

She didn't spend the two to three years away from Link idly, after all.

Giving them a venomous glare, she charged at the nearest one again, mentally noting the furthest one clucking in disappointment and another charging right at her. Suddenly, she brought the momentum into a swing, slamming her elbow into the charging evil sprite and was ready to follow it up with a painful hammer blow to the shoulder, but one of the sprites chose that moment to slam both of them into a tree.

Spitting out bark again, she noted that the one she had a hold onto had fallen unconscious and was drifting down with a weak glow. Turning to the smirking evil sprite she screeched, "You'd turn on your friend? What type of dung ball are you?"

The sprite shrugged. "One that does what it takes to win. This is just a game, after all, no harm done." She teleported over and carrying the force from moving over three meters in less than a second into the shove pushing Navi back into the tree. The other four circled around Navi, and with an unspoken signal chose to rush into her.

With her wings bent from the impact, Navi couldn't fly up to avoid the incoming wave, so instead she chose to fall. Two of the five were unlucky enough to dive right into the tree, but two scattered flying up and one followed her and spiralled down.

Navi chuckled as the evil sprite neared up for what appeared to be a haymaker from above. They should have learnt, but in the miniature world of the fey, going for a close fight wouldn't be wise against her. Despite her wings failing to work, Navi grabbed onto the incoming arm and twisted it against the direction the sprite was spinning in, effectively ripping it free of its socket. Ignoring the pained cry, she shoved the arm down, grabbed the sprite's head and did her trademark attack: the head butt.

It worked like a charm.

Twirling through her descent, Navi managed to get the evil sprite's body underneath her to act like a cushion. The other two were hovering above her uncertainly, and Navi wasted no time to hide in the cover of plant stems, dimming her glow and changing it's colour in an attempt of camouflage.

Would she still be in top working order, Navi would have continued pummelling the others to prove her superiority, but with her wings damaged she chose the strategic relief of battle. It would be best to relay to the Great Deku Tree that some sprites were getting corrupted, and they were finding ways to last outside the forest.

Thankful that the mists helped veil her and that she spent most of the morning hovering over the same flowers, it was a quick and easy journey back through the tunnel and into the Kokiri Village. It was made a bit pleasurable by that the unconscious evil sprite she took for questioning kept bumping against the pebbles.

-

"Damned pain..." Reza growled through gritted teeth, tightly clenching her stomach and wincing as though it was on fire. "Damned medicine... damned world..."

Malik nodded in sympathy. "Oh, you poor soul, re-growing muscles overnight must be a painful process. I remember breaking my arm, and the person who placed the splint was so cruel in the treatment that I was knocked asleep from the pain."

"You were unconscious, idiot, not asleep." Malon corrected, kicking her legs from her perch on Link's tree house patio.

Malik shrugged, waving his hand in dismissal. "Same thing, just one thing's less painful that the other. Anyway, for an entire hour I was asleep and the guy said that it was better that way, since he said that my howling was irritating him."

"I'll follow in his footsteps and knock you unconscious if that'll keep you quiet." Reza growled, curled up in a foetal position. "Damned pain..."

"Hey, is that fairy walking?" Malon suddenly said, pointing to a blotch of light purple dragging a darker purple blotch on the ground. "I thought that fairies could fly?"

"Who knows? Maybe she decided her legs needed a bit more exercise today." Malik commented.

-

The walk to the Great Deku Tree however was far from quick and easy. Due to the broken hills and steep slopes, some parts would have been impossible for a fairy to walk over alone. The word 'alone' being the operative word, as Navi used her hostage as a safety mat, throwing her over first and then jumping to land on her afterwards. Luckily her wings helped provide some air resistance; otherwise the poor sprite's back would have been crushed from the constant use.

It was also hard to ignore the inquisitive glances from other fairies from her walking, and some of the fearful looks when they sensed her companion's aura. All of them however let her pass without question, knowing that she was heading for the Tree. Most of them were wondering how she'll cross the little river with her broken wings.

So for the rest of the morning and majority of the afternoon was used by Navi for fashioning a boat out of reeds. To her annoyance no one bothered to help her, most fairies too wary about the unconscious sprite to dare getting close – even Ko, for as amicable as she was. But she finally reached the Great Deku Tree and he welcomed her with more warmth than the other fairies.

"Good afternoon, young Navi. I see you brought a foreigner to my presence, and I feel your companion does not harbour good will." He said, flicking a glance at the evil sprite.

"The guy's been a prick, alright, him and his friends. But I've come to tell you, I've met him outside the forest with Link and he was just as ill willed as now. I fear that something is corrupting the fey, and granting them enough power that they can linger long outside the protection of the forest. There were five others with this sprite, and all of them were just as bad."

The Tree sighed, looking weary at the sprite. "It is not a what, it is a who. I believe that the same person that is harnessing the powers to make Dark Copies is the same for this event. I also strongly believe that Link is, or will be deeply involved with this issue. Very well Navi, I will attempt to cleanse this sprite of the corruption and garner as many answers as I can. Until then, go with Link, and help him on his present quest.

Navi bowed and flew off, tumbling into the ground as her wings refused to work properly. Cursing, she bowed again and walked away.

"Well," Navi muttered to herself, "that's one problem fixed."

"Curse it!" Navi screamed to herself, "There's another problem here!"

The reed boat she made had floated away.

-

Navi had finally found out what the staircase was for in the fairy training camp. With her wings broken, she was very grateful for them. Shael and Hale thought it would have been best to accompany her back to the entrance anyway, just in case she needed help.

"Despite that the field course assigned had been left undone, I would like to congratulate you on the more important discovery you have found. We will be ready to award your efforts another time, once all preparations are made." Shael heaved a sigh, looking downhearted for a moment. "For seven hundred years... While Hyrule was caught in the grip of strife and war, the Lost Woods had been protected by its enchantments for seven hundred years. If our fey cousins are getting corrupted within our own borders, it is my greatest fear that we will be included in the next coming war."

Hale nodded, understanding what Shael meant – after all, she lived those years with him, and Navi was still considered a junior age-wise to them both. "The Kokiri, the fairy folk, we are not war machines. The children of the forest would be unprotected from conflict, and there is little we can do to soften the blows. I know you will do this regardless, but I ask of you personally: Navi, while working alongside Link, please find a way to protect the forests from the inevitable struggles. I know such a hope is impossible, to prevent the inevitable, but there must be a way to make that gaze of hatred pass us harmlessly."

Navi nodded solemnly, took a swig of the red potion she had and walked off, pondering on Hale's words. She ignored the grumbles she heard behind her when they noticed their monument to Nayru destroyed (although she did sweat a bit) and paid the smallest amount of attention to Link as they departed from the Kokiri Village. Now was a time to be more serious in her duty; her duty to Link, and her duty to the Forest.

For now, Navi had a new task at hand.

-

A/N: A ha! I have finally completed this thing! At 10k words, this is my largest chapter yet. Hopefully this chapter hasn't suffered to badly from verbiage.

I have to regret to inform my readers that I will not be able to update certainly for the next months. Due to the transferring from one location on the globe to another, this computer will be stored out of my reach for quite a while, and slightly longer when setting up the internet line again. I thank you for the privilege you readers have given me as morale support, urging me to the final destination of this story: the end. It's still a ways off, but I'm getting there.

First time reader: For your review... thank you. That has been one of the most useful reviews I have ever received. I would gladly enjoy your next review, especially if it would allow me to improve this story even further.

If it is possible, could you help highlight the areas that you believed were lacking? I cannot promise that I might change them, but I'll use them as guidelines to 'what not to do' and improve upon following chapters. I know that perfection isn't in my grasp (yet), so every form of improvement is gladly accepted.

Heh, that's one of the beauties of fanfiction in particular: the audience, the cast and the setting has already been guaranteed. I guess should you not understand the Nintendo game, this story might feel a bit awkward to you. Most people who choose to visit this story generally already know the game on some level, so I do not really wish to be repetitive by repeating the events in the game again. However, character development is something I definitely wish to expand further upon: should you have any tips on that as well, I would enjoy reading it. If you want some better understanding of the game Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, supply your e-mail and I'll give a summary on them both – it might help you enjoy the story more, who knows.

Your review has been most appreciated. I might already be repeating myself now, but thank you for reviewing, and it has been certainly very useful critique for me. You probably work in management, although I find a flaw in your anonymous review name: if you reply the next time, I can't call you a first time reader, can I, eh? Ah well.

Lunatic Pandora1: Didn't understand? Damn... I was hoping to make the chapter a bit abstract, coming from the view of the enemy, but not so abstract my readers wouldn't understand it well... Pity... Well, it's pretty much a segmented view of the battle earlier (chapter 17) and Shukaku's thoughts. The slight addition on the end was just me trying to make art out of the story, and introduce the third brother: Shakaku. Thanks for reviewing though, shame some people deemed the interlude not big enough to care about sniffle

H7: Plunderers... The good ol' word for looter. Thank the lord I haven't met a thief of any type so far in my life, and I hope to keep it that way for the remaining god knows how many years left. Story recommend feature? I'm not so sure on that one, really... I think I tried to use it once, didn't get it right and stopped bothering, so I'm not really of help in that department. I could however recommend your stories when I review in everyone else's, should that work – I'll sound more like a spam bot (like on D2 – goddamn ads...) than anything else, but it might work. Oh yeah, speaking of D2, once my pc is figured up again in my new location, the time difference between us should be less drastic.

Well, I thank all those who reviewed for giving me the morale support needed for my frail determination to continue, and deeply thank all those who read this far for simply... reading this far. Huh. Until next time, au revoir!


	21. Forging the Sword

Chapter 20: Forging the sword

A/N: Arrived in my new living place about a month ago, but no house yet – therefore, I regret to say that any further updates might be a bit more sporadic and less consistent than before. I thank all my present viewers for holding on with such faith to my stories and feel obliged to continue regardless – even if it's on school computers (damn Macs).

Have you noticed something about my writing style? I get (in my opinion) fairly good when I continuously write, but rust very quickly… Now that I run this chapter on both MAC and PC (different Word documents) I run the risk of potentially damaging this entire story... not a pleasant thought.

And now, on with the story… (Goddamn keyboard…)

-

"Move it, you slackers!" Navi cried, brandishing a twig as sword, "Your family cries at the lazy pace you're working at! Oh, the shame!"

Malik wiped the sweat from his brow and blearily glanced towards Navi. "We're just carrying our supplies – what's the rush?" Reza nodded in agreement, half-heartedly trying to wave away Navi each time she tried to rest on her shoulder – too often did she get a twig in her ear.

The Goddesses had deemed that not enough rain poured within the lives of the group, and decided to fix that – literally and figuratively. With the additional rain, some patches of the Field became swamps overnight, and each time the horses stepped inside them it took an hour of trudging to get them out. One horse didn't want to take the burden anymore, and refused to move with any load on top. So, with disagreeable weather, a disagreeable horse and now some very disagreeable people, Navi's proclamations of "get your butts out of the mud, weaklings" were really grating on their nerves.

Except Link's, who seemed to be totally oblivious to the complaints of his friends. Living with Navi and to some extent Tatl for the stretch of 2 years taught him the value of patience with fairies.

The progress to Death Mountain would really have only taken three or four days by horseback. But with the torrential rain that refused to let up, Reza had suggested they go by foot and let Epona carry the supplies with one of their horses on the verge of mutiny. That worked fine for the first three hours, but with each unstable step through the mud knocking the items off, to prevent them from soaking up anymore mud they chose to carry them instead. So, with the additional baggage, already two days had passed with an expected five more to go.

"Fate awaits no man! You either take control of fate, or Fate will take control of you! Our fate resides in Death Mountain right now, so we either get there in time or get there out of time!" Navi preached before buzzing over to Link's cap. The rain had dropped to a drizzle, leaving his hat soaked and not as pleasant to reside under as before. Nevertheless waving her arm around like a maniac and whizzing to and fro from person to person tired her enough that she didn't care.

"Blah," Reza grumbled, distastefully trying to flick the mud off her hands, "there's no such thing as Fate. We decide what happens to ourselves, not some great king in the sky."

"Oh?" Malik asked, pointing to the sky, "what do you call the Goddesses then?"

"An influence, not Fate itself but an influence on it."

Link took that moment to reply, "I'm not so sure. From my personal experiences, Fate exists." Smiling slightly he patted the ocarina strapped to his belt.

Reza raised an eyebrow, clearly interested. "Explain then."

Clearing his throat, Link gazed back at the Lost Woods almost nostalgically, and started, "When I went to Termina, to save it I placed myself into a time loop – once day three ended, I made sure I returned back to the time when day one begins. Anyway, if you can imagine, I was low on money, so I took the quickest way to gain it."

"Stealing?" Reza asked, sounding a bit impressed. He must have, after all no one with skills great enough to penetrate the Gerudo Fortress and steal his items back would waste such a talent.

"Actually, it was gambling." Link corrected. "Luckily there was a bank system which took a record of the amount deposited, so once I had 10 rupees I'd play a game of dice and remember the way the dice rolled. Once you wind back time, providing you do everything else the same way the dice will roll the same way – easy money, since I knew what number to bet on." He paused and looked sheepish. No one would have expected the Hero of Time to gamble, wouldn't they? "Now, if Fate didn't exist, chance would have taken effect each time and made each dice roll different. But the dice was fated to do just that, so I got rich very quickly." Smiling, Link chose to return to his daydreaming state, blankly staring forward as he mechanically carried his supplies.

"Ah, the days of easy food," Link muttered to himself, "those were the days – pity time travelling pretty much made you vomit it all out again." He shuddered at the memory.

They pretty much edged into silence after that, only with comments from Malik stating "ha, you're wrong" cutting the peace along with the whack that accompanied it.

Reza briefly smiled at Malik's curses before returning her thoughts back to the rain. In the desert, water was one of the most precious commodities, and the Sheikah and Hylians all take it for granted. She gave an inaudible sigh in commemoration to those that died from dehydration – fighting without water replenishment was one of the skills many needed to master, but not all did.

Raising her hand she absently watched the droplets crash against her tanned skin, rolling around the contours before fusing with other raindrops that had arrived earlier on.

Water, Reza wondered, the very essence of life. None can live without it, and yet many do not even have it. She wryly smiled to herself as she reflected on the ways the Gerudo managed to survive out in the desert heat, scratching off any dew or moisture that lay within the sands and stones.

Her thoughts were cut off with Epona suddenly refusing to move forward and braying very worriedly. Malik abruptly turned around, and with the rules of inertia against him toppled into the mud.

"Steady girl," Malon whispered soothingly to Epona, trudging close enough the rub her neck, "what's the matter?" Epona's response was to nervously step back, her nerves not calmed by the familiar contact from Malon's hand.

It wasn't just Epona who was showing signs either. Navi buzzed around Link's head in an erratic pattern, her glow alternating between the glows of light purple and yellow in fear. "The matter, you ask?" she frantically replied, attempting to find a hiding place in Link's cap. "Evil, I tell you! Evil! Enough evil to revive a thousand Stalfos _and _curse the sun to shadow! That's the matter!"

Warily the group huddled into a circle, Reza drawing her scimitars and Malik flipping a few knives out of his belt. Link pulled out his bow and knocked an arrow, giving a reassuring glance towards Malon. Even in their tight circle the horses and Navi weren't feeling much comforted.

"Your creatures are much smarter than you are," a deep voice laughed, "they can tell when their life is being challenged."

Link raised his bow as he hunted for where the voice came from – a futile attempt as the voice came with the wind, drifting around them, coming from nowhere, everywhere.

"Another one!" Navi fearfully whispered. "It just couldn't have been Shikaku and Shukaku, couldn't it? There's another demon!"

"Don't attempt to hide your voice from me, little sprite, for earth bows to my will and the ground has become my ears." A wind blew by, carrying the voice and stirring the grass at their feet. Malik yelped in surprise as a nearby weed entwined itself into an arm, attempting to rope itself around his foot.

It was more suspense than Malik could take, however, and the thought of an enemy coming from anywhere was sending ice flowing through his veins. "Stop hiding like a coward! I'm not afraid of you, and none of us are either!" he roared to the sky, flipping a dagger in his hand in preparation.

The voice laughed; a laugh one might associate with a wolf that had cornered a rabbit, could wolves laugh. "You speak of your own courage against me, yet the stench of fear around you is overwhelming. Very well though, I shall grant you the honour of my presence."

Everyone tensed in anticipation, but it was Malon's startled cry that signified the demon's appearance. The winds started to pick up, dragging loose grass, leaves and mud with it and started to spiral at a point not three metres away from them. It started to glow a sick green and Navi shivered as she could almost taste the darkness around it. Before their very eyes, from wind came flesh and rain came bone, creating in seconds a human-like being in front of them.

There were some differences, of course, just as Shikaku and Shukaku didn't appear like normal people. The demon's eyes were those of a snake, giving the feel that he was always watching you. Much like the others he stood extremely tall, being half a metre taller than Reza herself. The only difference between him and the other two demons was that his clothing seemed to be leaves seamed together.

"Shakaku, at your service." He bowed mockingly, but never taking his eyes off the group.

"Enough talk," Reza growled as she slid into her sword stance, "if you came for a fight, you're getting one." Malik shuffled towards Reza's right, getting ready to jump and outflank Shakaku at any notice. Link muttered a few words, imbuing his arrow with magic.

"How, barbaric of you," Shakaku scoffed, cracking his knuckles and stepping back, "I merely came to congratulate you on your successes against my brothers. But, if a fight is what you expect of me, I shall deliver." With those words, he pulled an amulet out of his clothing and threw it on the ground.

Link cursed at the sight of the arrow. "Get back!" He yelled, dissipating his magic so he could gesture with his hand. The amulet glowed a faint green before dissolving into the ground. Not a second after his warning the air warped slightly and already the mana lines in the earth and sky started getting distorted, the mana being channelled into a nexus where the amulet once was.

With their attention distracted, Shakaku smirked and changed form. There was one skill that few possessed, a skill that literally allowed a person to bend to an attack – shape shifting. Shikaku was the smartest, Shukaku the strongest, but him, Shakaku was known as the cruellest, for he exploited his skill to the very limit and granted no mercy.

Link had experienced the sickness associated with the 'mana void', as Navi chose to call it, but Malik and Reza were not. Just moments after it started draining the mana right out of them they could feel a headache coming on, and Malik crumbled as he felt the sensation of energy being sucked right out of him. It was only due to Link's warning and he dragging them out that saved them from having deathly shivers as their life literally collapsed around them.

Reza stumbled for a moment, trying to dispel the nauseous feeling and not vomit over the ground and heard a startled curse accompanying an arrow flying. Link was shooting at the demon.

Link shooting at demon equalled the demon attacking.

Demon attacking means that the demon spotted a weak point.

That weak point was namely herself and Malik.

With strength she didn't believe she had she attempted to roll back and get Shakaku within her sights.

A Gerudo knew no fear, the doctrine of over four hundred years of war dictated, but the sight of what Shakaku was did bring something resembling fear into her.

A Wolfos was pretty much a mutated wolf, infused with enough dark energy and most primitive intentions that it became a living death machine. A Snow Wolfos was a Wolfos battered by the harshest conditions available in Hyrule, and managed to survive past that. What Shakaku became matched the Snow Wolfos in size, but from the sinews that visibly stretched in its limbs was more than a match in sheer power.

Malik also made the same mental connections between Link firing and an enemy out there. He had seen enough drawings of the Sheikah battling against great beings (dimly in the back of his mind, he wondered why did people associate size with strength?) and pretty much extinguishing those behemoths, so he was not so afraid about how the demon looked.

What scared him wasn't the glare of the demon's eyes, a furious clash of red and gold that moulded over one another in an angry array of hate and bloodlust. Reza had given him some looks that seemed just like that, and he was no stranger to receiving them from many people either.

What scared him was Link's arrow. It had been a fiery streak, heat strong enough to melt steel curling around the tip as it rocketed to the demon's throat (Malik mentally noted to congratulate Link's aim later). As it hit the skin, the fire went out with a _poof_ and no bang, and the arrow literally bounced off the skin.

He had seen when Link was showing off that very same arrow slice through two trees and charring a third tree into nothing more than soot. That very same arrow, which should be considered a siege weapon, _did not even scratch_ the demon.

He felt fear when Reza was out for his blood, he felt fear in the desert siege from Shukaku. But none of that fear even came close to the death-screaming fear he felt now.

With a snarl the demon's teeth ripped through the air Reza's head once occupied, and his fur suddenly clustered and sharpened until his entire body was covered in spikes. Reza, who rolled underneath to avoid having her neck crushed, attempted to swing her sword at the throat as well, but with surprising dexterity one of Shakaku's claws bashed it out of the way. With a jump that belied his size, he hopped two metres back and started circling the group.

"It doesn't help when conventional weapons don't work, does it?" A faint smirk lied on the demon wolf's face as he cast his voice into their minds. "Swords have broken against my skin, magic diffused by my breath."

Malon was not a fighter and so was relying on the sturdiness of her friends to keep them alive. Next to the horses which were watching with sick anticipation, she fell to her knees and prayed to the Goddesses with such desperation that she never prayed with before.

"Perhaps you fools haven't heard of this place, but between my home and your country lies a country of Lairok, they call themselves the Jewel of Heaven's Eye. A town once stood between me and my destination: now the path is clear." His voice rumbled with cruel laughter in their mind, and a barrage of images depicting dead bodies and ruined streets pummelled them.

Malik was visibly sickened by the images of children with their throats torn out given to him, and after standing in shock glared at Shakaku.

"You foul, cruel…" he growled, his face fixed in an furious look as he groped for the right word.

"Demon?" Shakaku replied sardonically. "Why, thank you – I have been called that in the past, and it has gotten to such an extent it is like calling your eyes blue – no longer subjective, just plain and objective."

With a cry of outrage Malik charged out of the circle, his knives twirling in his hands as he lunged for the demon. However, that was just what the demon wanted: a person all alone without the support from his friends.

So Malik was surprised that instead of trying to avoid his attack, Shakaku was running straight into it. His hairs bristled and waved in a pattern until he became a living buzz saw. Unheeding of the warning Reza was yelling behind him, Malik charged on to the awaiting teeth…

… and was saved as a boomerang hooked around his ankle, tripping him and with the demon flying overhead.

Link sighed in relief as his boomerang returned back to him. As a child's weapon, it wasn't all that dangerous, but he was grateful he still kept it with him. Malik, with his emotion masks, seemed a bit too emotional for his own safety.

Reza didn't miss her chance at trying to take down the demon. With the demon lunging over Malik, she threw her own boomerang, all weight and razor edges, at the demon's mouth and followed it up with a quick sprint for Malik. The chances were that the mouth skin would be slightly softer than the outer skin. Hopefully.

That hope was well-founded, be it from all the praying Malon was doing or a fault in the demon's design. The demon, with no leverage in being caught surprised in the air, could not swerve out of the way. Shakaku however _shifted_ out of the boomerang's way, altering his form to avoid it.

Reza couldn't see what Shakaku was since she was grabbing Malik and hurdling away as fast as possible. Malon and Link however could, and it wasn't a better sight than before.

Instead of shrinking to dodge, the demon enlarged, muscles rippling and fur twisting as he reformed. Grey, matted hair gave way to coarse, black hide and teeth and snout shrank and shortened with the sprouting of horns on top of the cranium. Link had once fought a giant bull at Snowhead, and Shakaku was now a form that rivalled it in size and speed, dodging out of the way once his hooves touched the ground.

"Surprised, Hero of Time?" Shakaku bellowed, his thoughts crashing past their ears and straight into their minds. "You thought I would limit myself to just one form?" Fiery breath curled out of his mouth as he laughed disdainfully. "You were saviour of your country through either great strength or great sharpness of mind – right now, I see you are lacking in both."

That was an insult, plain and simple. Link for one thing heard enough taunts from his enemies that he grew immune to them. Navi, on the other hand, was enraged. Link was under her guidance the entire time he saved Hyrule, and by claiming that he was not strong enough or smart enough was a backhanded insult saying her guidance wasn't good enough.

Fear gave way to fury, eyes glowing with anger and wings fluttering in vehemence. Determinedly she flew right out of Link's cap and drifted around Shakaku's neck, clear of his horns, breath and hooves and yelled, "Stupid, you say? Are you saying by guidance is stupid? Well, I'll show you some stupid guidance!

"Link!" she barked, glowing yellow in battle fever, "he shape shifted to avoid being cut in his mouth! That means only his outer skin is can't be penetrated! Aim for his eyes and nose!" Link followed up the advice by shooting three volleys of arrows at the suggested spot.

Shakaku was forced to step back and turn his head to allow his strong hide to take the blows. "I grow irritated by your attempts," he growled, "they will not work!" Link's response to his glare was to fire again.

This time, when the demon turned, his vision was surrounded by Malik flying at him with daggers unsheathed. With a roar, he plunged his daggers as deep as he could into the demon's eye. The demon's cry was one of outrage and pain, him swinging his head furiously. Malik was thrown off and luckily into the awaiting Reza.

Shakaku stumbled, his last eye glaring at them. Gradually he shifted back into his human form, one arm raised to his eye. "I'll be back," he seethed, slowly dissolving into wind and water, "revenge awaits no man. I'll be back."

And with those words, Shakaku disappeared.

-

It was a weary group that arrived at the steps of Kakariko village. The demon's threat loomed ominously in their minds, the minor victory flooded by the worry of an enraged demon. The comforting creak of the windmill was ignored with their troubling thoughts on how many demons there were out there.

"What are we here for again?" Malik asked suddenly. "Can I go visit my relatives?"

"Yeah, go ahead. I'm just going to make myself a sword. Most of the time would be spent reading the scrolls, anyway." Link gestured to the bundle of soggy paper that was meant to be information on forging. "Hopefully, they'll still be legible – Nabooru would have my head off if her stuff goes awry."

"Not just Nabooru," Reza muttered, disheartened at the damp mass, "that's my mother's best skills in there. Sierra would have a fit if she knew what state they were in right now…"

With a wave Link headed off to Death Mountain, Reza and Malon went to the archery shop and Malik suddenly hit a dilemma:

"Great… which tunnel do I use to get into the caverns?" Hoping above hope that the tried-and-not-true test of i-ni-mi-ni-my-ni-mo would work, he boldly walked into the left most tunnel…

_Splat._

"Owie… that's not the right one." A groan claimed from a pit full of cockroaches.

-

If you asked Link one thing he was most proud of, the answer would have been being able to tolerate Navi. If you asked Link the second thing he was most proud of, it would have been his aim. With no sword, and annoying Tektites everywhere, it was his dwindling supplies of arrows that kept their nasty fangs away from his throat.

"Stupid Gorons," Navi muttered as they dodged the rolling Goron bomber, "damned cave is open and yet that guy still tries to blow open the entrance. They don't learn very quickly, do they?"

Link chuckled at that. "Hey, but in their defence, when under stress they remember stuff very sharply. Remember in the fire temple and those Goron prisoners?"

"Which makes it more laughable," Navi retorted, fluttering down to Link's shoulder, "they remember what has happened but don't act on it. 'Oh, the bridge is broken, but never mind, I'll still walk it.' Good memory, bad use of it."

Link winced at that thought. "That analogy is a bit… harsh."

"That analogy is a bit realistic."

-

If you asked Reza one thing she was most proud of, the answer would have been her ability to fix her mind to a target. If you asked Reza the second thing she was most proud of, it would have been her aim. In the archery shop, she had only paid for one game, but the rules allowing another game with a perfect score, was playing four.

"A harder level," she grinded out, frowning slightly at her handiwork, "crank up the level once more." Malon herself couldn't see the problem with Reza's aiming – not once did she miss the flying rupees (much to the shopkeeper's dismay). But there was something about her shooting that annoyed Reza; maybe the unequal sizes of the shards or something.

The shopkeeper mumbled something unintelligible and reset the game. Malon briefly pitied his business – those shattered rupees once had a value, and here Reza was demolishing more for free.

"What are you trying to do?" Malon asked, gingerly plucking out a rupee shard that got stuck in the wooden walls. "You're blasting them into pieces, I give you that, but I don't think you're accomplishing anything else."

"In each rupee there is a weak point known as the breaking point. All the rupees are made of slightly different materials so the breaking point is in different places. All I'm trying to do is _always_ hit the breaking point. Once struck, the rupee should shatter like glass, each shard no larger than sawdust." Her reply was often interrupted by her own grunts each time she released an arrow.

"Ah… and what for?"

"Fun, is all."

-

The term 'fun' could not be applied to what Malik was doing. Passage one ended in cockroaches and after wading his way out, passage two should lead him to…

_Splash._

"Damn it," Malik cried, bordering on tears, "curse you Anju! Lousy cuccos…"

… Bird droppings and a whole ditch full of it.

-

It didn't take long for Link to barter with Biggoron and Medigoron for a forge of his own. All they wanted in return was to be able to see everything he makes once they are finished. Not a bad deal, but it was understandable as all they were doing was carving a hole into the rock and piping some lava pass it.

"Well, it's time to see our good friend Volvagia." Link hummed merrily as he donned his red tunic.

"What for? Aside from fishing for more magical items in sulphur puddles, I see no point." Navi grumbled as she remembered the amount of sweating done inside the volcano.

"Well, if we can bottle cold fire, I figured that with some luck we should be able to bottle nice, hot red fire."

"Fat chance. Ah well, don't forget to bring some water."

-

The aim of a shop is to have a greater income than the expenditures required sustaining it. Such is the rule of business: make money, not lose it. For the archery shop, aside from nice donations and tips now and then, the sole income was payment for the fees for shooting away like mad. Reza was shooting away like mad, but was not missing.

If the shopkeeper could, he would have tried to strangle Reza.

Actually, he did try, but a flying shard just a centimetre from his nose flew by, and that was an omen enough to not bother.

There were nine levels of difficulty for the archery game: each level made the rupees fly a bit faster and became less predictable. Reza had knocked six levels down already, and was still going strong. He wondered what he should do when she finished the last level – she looked moody, carried swords around and definitely knew how to use them (plus he just handed her a bow and a bunch of arrows) – the outlook didn't look that appetising for him.

So the only thing that he could do right now was bite his fingernails and pray to the heavens above that she'll make a mistake - just one!

-

Link was no stranger to, well, strangeness. So when he went to his forge after filing his request for some iron ore, what he got instead was powder, to be exact, seventeen barrels worth of powder.

Navi drifted over to the red powder, grimacing as the fluttering of her wings was unsettling the top layer. "This is iron? Doesn't really look like it." Gingerly she floated down, treading carefully over the red dust.

"To be exact, it's actually iron oxide, hematite or something like that." Link shrugged, wriggling his fingers in preparation. "Although, I was hoping they would give me rocks worth, now sand." Sighing he grabbed his shield and started using it like a shovel, slowly piling the sand from the barrels into the furnace.

Navi stared. "Dude, you really have one problem with equipment. Go borrow a shovel."

Link grumbled something about Gorons having shovel-like hands and not needing shovels.

"Aren't we meant to go visit Volvagia? I'm getting bored waiting here."

"We'll get there in a minute, I'm just preparing in case that there's a limited amount of time that you have with storing fire inside glass."

"Fine... I'll have to find ways of entertaining myself then. Hey, want to here a joke?"

"Not really, no - your jokes are cruel, not funny."

"Well I'll tell you anyway. A Sheikah was paddling down the river and a Gerudo and Hylian were watching. Suddenly, his canoe capsized, and he cried out 'I pray to Nayru that there aren't any sharks down here!' Suddenly, he started screaming."

"Heavens above, not this joke again."

"The Hylian asked, 'what's wrong?' and the Gerudo replied 'Nayru answered his prayer; she didn't put any sharks down there'. Confused, the Hylian asked 'then why is he screaming?' The Gerudo smiled and said..."

"You know, playing on prejudices isn't that funny."

"'Nayru didn't put any sharks down there, I did.'"

-

It was a bedraggled, unhappy and smelly Malik that arrived at the main hallway of the Sheikah Caverns. Dripping with droppings and looking bugged with the bugs he shuffled slowly past his father.

"Hello kid, how was your - goodness gracious, what on earth happened to you?" He snivelled his nose, taking a step back to avoid the stench.

"I got lost. I got unlucky. I got into a pit of cockroaches and droppings. That's all in the past tense though, if you noticed dad. Want to here something in the present? I get annoyed. I get frustrated. I get this very desirable urge to strangle whoever made those traps. So dad, spare me the hunting around these caverns and who made it?" Malik gave him a maniacal glare, made more prominent by the cockroach blood dripping off his bangs.

His father chuckled nervously. "Ah... well, go take a shower and ask the Elders. They should know who." When his son slouched out of earshot, he wiped the sweat on his brow and muttered, "I knew it was a bad idea. But did they listen? No... And now I can safely say 'I told you so'."

-

Adrenaline Link believed was one of the most amazing creations of the body; the first time he tried to get through the Fire Temple, he had no idea where he was going, he needed to save Gorons, navigate through some of the most wretched mazes, then fight a possessed dragon – and coming out alive is always a plus. And amazingly enough, despite the odds plastered against him, he managed it the first time. Now, his third time, where he was more relaxed and no adrenaline, he could appreciate the difficulty he had the first time.

"You're lost, right?" Navi grumbled, settling on the magical shoulder guards. "Forgot to bring the map, right? Didn't listen to me, right? I said 'straight, fool, you walk straight!' But no, you had to decide that the complicated and twisted way was the right way!"

"Hey, give me a break," Link stated, looking mildly affronted at Navi, "it worked the last time! I thought all I had to do was follow all the sulphur puddles and bingo!" Navi sighed dispiritedly, brutally yanking out the stopper for the water bottle and plunging in.

"If you need me I'll be drinking to my heart's delight."

Link paused, suddenly irritated at Navi's ingenuity. He couldn't turn the bottle upside down to dislodge her, for he'll throw away all their water. He couldn't leave the stopper off and let her suffer the heat anyway, for the water will evaporate, and he wasn't so cruel as to suffocate her to death.

Ah well, he could always give her a bit of a stir.

-

Reza and Malon were now playing a friendly game of chess. Friendly in the Gerudo sense, by that no stakes were stacked on it; no death threats were linked to losing, just serious competing. Being on top of the windmill with such a beautiful scenery surrounding helped keep the calming atmosphere

"You were a bit mean to the shopkeeper, calling his shop pathetic." Malon commented, moving her knight in a forking position.

"Bad move – check. Nine levels only? The Gerudo themselves admittedly have only five, but it's all on horseback, and for training sometimes we just throw clay discs at the archer while the person skip-ropes." Reza countered, moving her bishop so that now Malon's king and knight was forked themselves.

"So, calling it pathetic is still harsh. I've seen lots of pathetic farms, compared to mine of course, but I keep the though I keep the thoughts to myself." Hesitatingly she placed her rook as a block.

"See, it's all relative. Poor farms, good farms, good practice, and pathetic practice – they're all relative. I just am more expressive about my own opinion, that's all. No real harm done – either he improves, or he's resentful and doesn't improve." Reza waved her hand in dismissal and knocked Malon's last knight out of play.

"But it's just your opinion, not something people will all have different ideas about. You could have said that he had not enough levels, and that would have supplied the same idea." She countered, both in words and by killing the knight with her queen.

"True enough, but he might discard it easier. My way's a larger rock. The bigger the rock, the greater the ripples, and the harder to remove." Reza loved analogies involving nature, for she believed everyone could relate to it. She also loved winning, and had just demolished Malon's queen, reducing her remaining defence to three pawns, a rook, a bishop and a knight.

Malon sighed, staring disconsolately at the chessboard. Wincing at how weak her position was, she flicked down her king in surrender. "I give up, you treat this as a blinking war campaign. But a heavier rock also means it hurts more if it lands wrongly."

"Apply real life situations to everything teaches you life a hell lot better than just running straight into them. Hey, I just drop the rock; he needs to learn how to catch it." Briefly she paused, wondering how her analogy came from splashing water to catching boulders. Shrugging, she accepted the Gerudo teachings and the way of the desert. Out there, there are enough live-or-die situations that you tend to need to learn quickly.

-

Living in the Sheikah Caverns meant many benefits: safety from being underground, privacy as sound travels poorly through the varying medians, food from the importance of everyone living in it, and thank heavens hot water with it having the largest water system in Kakariko. After being refreshed with a uplifting hot shower, the thoughts of revenge was slowly ebbing out of Malik's mind as he slowly pondered on the mysteries of the universe.

"Why is the earth brown? Why did the Goddesses create us? Are the Goddesses the only deities out there? We believe we're open-minded to suggestions, but in the grand scale are we very narrow-minded?"

The cause of his questions? The link from the colour of the walls to the legends of the Triforce to the principals of religion to possibilities of other things.

Amazing what the mundane shade of brown does to the mind.

"Why does the sun change from red to yellow to red? Why does the moon appear at night? Why do we have a moon? Can we live without a moon? Why is the moon white? Why can't we outrun the moon, or the sun for that matter? Why is the moon weaker than the sun?"

The cause of his questions? The link from the colour of the walls to the colour of the sun to the colour of the moon to the use of the moon to the position of the moon to the brightness of the moon and sun.

Amazing what the mundane shade of brown does to the mind.

-

It worked last time, so Link figured it might work this time. He had conveniently placed the fishing rod propped against the walls, and was now using it again to fish in the sulphur puddles. Thinking about it, the weight of the shoulder guards was now just a matter that could be left in the back of his mind – as negligible as the weight of his own equipment. Mind you, to a normal person all that equipment would have made a man cry, but years of use and the extra growth from use modified him enough that its weight was as important as a raincoat.

The heat was more bearable, Link decided, when he stayed still. Fishing was one of the most passive activities Link ever done (aside from sleeping). Navi might argue that, as she has to plunge in and out of water to lock onto the fish, and that the larger the fish the harder it was to reel it in, but comparing that to swinging a sword like mad it was as relaxing as reading a book.

"Hey, Navi," Link called softly, watching the sulphur boil and froth, "what do you think makes it so that this fishing rod isn't being eaten away by the acid? The shoulder guards I'm betting is on its magical qualities, but unless this is a magical fishing rod it should be a glob of dissolved wood by now."

Navi grunted from inside the water bottle. "No blinking idea. However, there is a story about a magic fishing rod, if you want to know. It's about when the Goddesses were still in Hyrule – having fun or whater they did."

Link was intrigued at this. He could ask Farore for its validation later. "Oh, and what is it about?"

With a bit of effort Navi squeezed her form out of the bottle top, fluttering her wings to knock off the remaining water droplets. "When all creatures, mountains and rivers were created, the Goddesses wanted to test how well each and everything worked in relationship with each other. Now, most of the creatures got along fine, but one race, the Zora, were struggling to find food. They couldn't swim fast enough to catch food, and they couldn't run fast enough to hunt food.

"Since Nayru, the kindest of the three pitied them, she created a fishing rod that will bestow on the user the skills needed to catch fish. For three days she allowed the Zora to use it, and at the end of the three days took it back. Naturally they were a bit unhappy about that, and built many monuments and harvested as many gifts as possible to change her mind. Their pleading worked to a degree, for she created another fishing rod, which would instead of teach them to fish, but reel together their thoughts so they can discover how to fish."

"Cool," Link said, "guess that's this isn't that fishing rod; I don't feel any smarter. What else happened?"

"Nothing," Navi continued abruptly, "end of story. They were satisfied, used the fishing rod and then lost it."

Link blinked. Ah.

-

Malik was suddenly given the call by the High Mages. Three boys, none above the age of seven, scrambled over each other to deliver the message that his presence was needed.

Actually, their words were more like "old people - _giggle, giggle - _want you to - _stop poking me_ - visit - _ow, my eye - _the big room with - _revenge at last - _big pretty lights" that deciphered down to the former message. Malik had no idea why they wanted him to come, but they were the governing board: what they said goes.

You had to admit, the displays in the great chamber were fairly simple – just some large wooden chairs, a chandelier in the centre of the room, and some paintings on the wall – but combined together they created a very impressive sight. Childish sketches near the entrance slowly morphed to more artistic portraits and pictures, which in turn transformed into grand sceneries, entwining around the seven chairs, conceiving the thoughts of age and firmness. The pictures surprisingly were painted with a very deep purpose, as the light from the chandelier reflected better on the scenery images than the child sketching, illuminating the chairs where the High Mages sat better than the entrance, where the person called will be in the dark. Simple, yes, intimidating, yes, but ineffective, no.

The High Mages were wearing their dark blue cloaks, shadows veiling their eyes yet Malik could feel the stares of all six of them. As he entered, everyone stayed silent for a moment and Malik wondered whether there was some etiquette he was expected to follow with the High Mages. Desperately hunting around and thinking of none, he remained silent.

"Child, for three years you have wielded your might over emotions." The furthest left spoke solemnly, breaking the silence.

"Uh, yes." In the presence of those he was taught to fear and respect, his amicable attitude was lowered.

"Child, for three years you have understood the complex threads of human emotions."

"Child, for three years that had been the sole magics you and your family wielded."

"Yet child, in the past three weeks you have controlled something else."

"In the past three weeks you have been _touched_ by someone else."

"In the past three weeks you have been taught by someone else."

"In the past three weeks you have been given something else, something more."

Malik sweated under their intense looks. They slowly rose from their seats, standing in full height, imposing and daunting. Frantically he scrambled through his past experiences, searching fruitlessly for something he had that he didn't have before.

"I can't say that I did, sirs."

Their gaze continued.

"All seven of us were well connected."

"All seven of us knew each other beyond life itself."

"All seven of us knew each other beyond death itself."

"Six of us stand here, yet the seventh had been called."

"The seventh heralded the might over frost."

"The seventh died in the desert, fighting against the Gerudo race."

"The seventh was called in the desert, fighting for the Gerudo race."

"In the past three weeks we have sensed the same call of frost."

"In the past three weeks we have traced where it came from."

"In the past three weeks our search has led to you."

Malik remembered suddenly, his fight against Shukaku, the near impossibility of killing the demon and the swift surge of power, cooling, freezing.

"Ah yes! I was fighting a demon there! I think Link talked to someone and I then received magic I never had before. Speaking of demons, there is another one out there and-" His cry was cut off by the procession by the High Mages.

Glancing at each other, they intoned, "The seventh was impulsive."

"The seventh was impulsive, but not stupid."

"The seventh wouldn't have given his aid to someone with the Desert folk."

"The seventh wouldn't have given his aid so easily."

"The seventh chose you for reasons of his own."

"The seventh has deigned you as the next High Mage."

Malik was a fairly bright boy, but it took a moment to process that. Him, as a High Mage? Even if he took the five-year training required for that, he would become the youngest High Mage by 35 years of age!

Such a surprising twist rendered him without words, so the only thing he could do was stare. Humbled by the prospects of the duty involved, Malik kneeled down, lowering his head.

"I… I don't really know what to say… I will try my best."

One of them laughed, not mockingly, not in humour, but in disagreement. "You will not try your best."

"You will _do_ your best."

"You will _be _the best."

-

Unfortunately half an hour of fishing in various sulphuric ponds didn't give Link the wanted items, but there were a few perks from the activity. While he didn't get what he expected, he received what he didn't – namely, diamond sparks and gold dust, two of the rarest forging resources available. Gold dust was known to give a sword a edge so sharp it could cleave rock, but diamond sparks refined that even further and strengthened the blade to such a level it would almost never get blunt.

Carefully laying his trusty fishing rod on the wall again, Link strode into the chamber where Volvagia rested. That the dragon brought him out of the cavern when he was unconscious even though receiving possibly grievous injuries showed he bore Link no ill will, so Link was confident that Volvagia would support him in this endeavour.

"Ah hello, young Link," the dragon greeted, swooping down from his perch above to a level that didn't require Link to crane his head to badly, "what brings you back to my dominion? I see that your fairy partner is in better form today."

Navi blushed, embarrassed that someone remembered how she was in her drunken state (I mean, come on, who would want something that weird branded on them?). "Yes, I'm better now. But pushing that matter aside," she said loudly, as if volume would scatter that memory from the minds of others, "Link has something to ask of you."

"Oh? Something the Goddesses demanded? Something you yourself request for? By the way, how fares your new technique, you 'dragon kick'? Have you refined it further?" Volvagia queried, lowering his head down so he could rest his jaw on the rock island.

"Actually, I haven't trained with it." Link admitted sheepishly. "Didn't find any targets to practice it on. But yeah, you could say that it's something involving the Goddess and me."

Volvagia chuckled at that. "Goddess, as in singular. Interesting, it most likely must be Farore, with you bearing the mark of Courage. Very well, speak your demand and I will try to abide by it as well as I can."

"Well, I just want to bottle some of your fire."

The dragon stared at him, giving him a confused look. "I can see why you didn't receive the Triforce of Wisdom. Please explain further."

Link tried to brush off Navi's raucous laughter at the joke, and clarified, "I'm trying to make a sword, but to ease up on artificial fires and gain higher temperatures I thought that your breath would be a lot better. I would have asked the King Dodongo were he alive and friendly, but since he isn't… I also found some good gold dust and diamond sparks which I want to use as well."

Volvagia pondered upon the request. "I do not doubt your intentions, for with Farore on your side they must benefit the purposes of Hyrule. I do believe that it is possibly to store my breath within specialised glass, although my main concern is how to do it without roasting your arms."

Link broke out into a grin. "That's great! We'll worry about my arms later," he ignored Navi's muttering of needing arms to make a sword, "but what can we do about that specialised glass?"

Volvagia drifted up to his den and after a few moments of searching returned with a blue tinted bottle balanced on his nose. "This," he proclaimed proudly, "is glass infused with so much cold magic that no fire can melt it. Alas, I used to be able to breath blue fire as well as fiery red, but that skill was lost to time and Ganondorf's imposed madness. The problem is that it needs a link to someone's mana to store any fire. Someone needs to touch it so I can fill it with fire."

Boldy Link ambled forward and picked up the bottle. Raising it to his eyes he peered through it. "Doesn't feel that special. Ah well, I'm pumping ice magic through my entire body right now, so fire away." With a look of concentration he stuck his arms out straight, the bottle opening facing Volvagia.

"Suicidal." Navi muttered.

"A Believer, I prefer." Volvagia corrected. Inhaling strongly, he exhaled the inferno known as his breath.

-

After playing the game of chess, Reza and Malon were indulging in simpler pleasures: cloud watching.

"That one looks a bit like a spear," Malon commented, pointing to the sky. Reza hummed in agreement.

"Yeah, and the cloud right next to it looks like bit like a man with a shield. See that large blotch further away? You can almost imagine the man's throwing the spear to kill a bull." Reza smiled at her assumption. Death, war and fighting still dominated most of her thoughts, even in such relaxing pleasures.

"You're pretty good at this imagining stuff. What's your secret?"

"In the Desert, I doubt you noticed this, but there are hardly any clouds at all, not enough water to make them. Sierra loved this game whenever it rained, and even then it was just a blanket of thin clouds, us just using the streams of light to create the shapes. This is much easier in comparison." Yep, Reza concluded, desert life was greater than any other.

Malon stayed quiet for a minute, raising her arms to create a pillow for her head. "Life's tough out there, isn't it? Not much food, hardly any water, high temperatures and monsters at every corner."

Reza shrugged, a whimsical smile growing on her face. "You get used to it."

"How?"

"Live and learn."

-

It was a thoroughly blackened Link that stumbled back into Goron City. Surprisingly, none of them questioned his appearance, one mumbling about the weakness of the soft-skins. He had his fire stored nicely in the bottle, but also some dwindling fires in his hair which Navi was putting out.

"Note to self," Link choked out, a plume of soot erupting from his mouth, "more ice magic next time." Navi carried thimblefuls of water back and forth to douse the small flames.

"Damn right more magic. The next time you get into that problem, I'm not going to be the one who prevents you from going bald." She scowled, using her hand to clap out a small ember.

"My hair will grow back," Link said cheerfully as they reached the furnace, "time to make a sword! I got more barrels of iron than I need and more than enough gold dust for eight or nine swords! Time to get cracking!" Without further ado, he opened the jar underneath the furnace, and not soon after the iron powder was showing visible results.

Link smiled in satisfaction. Navi looked in incredulity. "Fast results," she muttered, seeing silvery colour appear as the powder clumped into a liquid.

Looking at the scrolls that he brought around, Link scanned through their contents before waiting patiently to put the gold dust in.

-

It was half a day later, with the red glow of the sun staining the sky did Link start applying the magic needed. All the ingredients were placed in, and with a whisper he invoked the magic of Din's Fire to help.

Keeping the magic chant in a soft whisper, Link hammered away at the metal, each stroke causing a scarlet glow to streak across the surface. Sweating from both heat and concentration, after a while he changed the spell to Farore's wind, granting magic to lighten the weapon despite its density.

Navi just watched in silence, watching the pulses of magic bend and fuse towards the blade, each strike transforming it from a blend of metals to a real killing weapon. She watched as each spell was summoned, watched how they channelled through the hammer and into the blade, watched how they altered it. She watched him evoke the magic of Nayru's Love, enhancing its indestructibility further, watching as he pooled more and more mana into his creation that the spells would not leave. She watched with amazement as his final spell took a different tact, calling with his own mana the mystic of the outer world, and saw how the mana flowed from the place he called home: the Kokiri Forest.

The respect she had for Link rose incredibly as the memories of filtered sunlight, fresh berries and children at play trickled into the sword. Her amazement slowly turned to horror as the darker aspects of the Forest followed through, consuming the niceties that were there before: rage beyond compare, furies from the monsters that lurked within, the feral desires to simply kill. Her cry of warning came was not needed, as Link already attempted to hold the surge of malignant emotions, but it was too late: the sword was pulsing with feral magic.

Link crumbled to his knees, dropping the blade from his numb fingers. "No," he whispered, "it wasn't meant to turn out like this. It wasn't meant to fail."

"Link, something went wrong. We got to get rid of it." Navi warned.

"Something went wrong. Something wasn't meant to go wrong, though. Too much dark energy has been absorbed, I'm afraid to break it." Link rose his hand to his forehead, closing his eyes in anger.

"What?"

"If I break it, all that concentrated anger will be loosed upon the Gorons, or whoever is nearby. Can you think of it, Navi? Can you think of an entire race going wild and savage? It might not happen, but it might just as well. That I can't risk."

Navi watched in silence, watching the savage energy wrap around the others, twisting them to its dark intent. The sword glowed red for a moment before dropping to a dull hue. "So what are you going to do?" She asked quietly.

"Brand it. I'll brand it with the danger it holds, and pray that it is never used. Not by me, not by anyone."

"Damn it," Link murmured, "I failed.

"I failed." And with those words, tears leaked from his eyes.

-

A/N: Aha! Work done! Through using the school computer and my father's laptop, risking information damage from differing softwares, I have finally completed this chapter! This is a milestone in my writing capabilities – without the distractions of my games (though I wish they were around) I can devote my spare time to writing. It is now 10pm where I am, so I have just written continuously for an hour and a half. Not bad, eh?

I thank all my patient readers who were most likely expecting an update (as predicted) seven months or whatever later. Unfortunately right now I have no connection to the Internet, so I'll have to upload it in school. Because of that I won't be able to respond to all your reviews in turn, so I'll just give a general thanks to everyone that read this far, and a deeper thanks to everyone that reviewed.

Any suggestions please add into my review box thing.

Oh yeah, by the way, I'm creating another Zelda fanfic with my spare time. Hopefully this story will update with the same amount of time in between each update. It's a FF7 crossover (dedicated to the works of Act 1: Trial of Man and Castle in the Sky), where I'll try a whole new style of writing. Watch out for that later – knowing FF7 will help, but if I do it right won't be needed.

Nearly 9k words! I'm getting better (or worse) at this.

Once again, thanks.


	22. Blue Maze

A/N: Ho ho ho… here I am, ploughing straight into the next work before had the 24 hours needed to process the last piece. I'm trying to knock down my update rate from two months to two weeks.

Chapter 21: Blue Maze

It was a morose and gloomy Link that shuffled down the Death Mountain trail. In his left hand sat Navi, who was trying her best to prevent the feral magic from spreading further. In his right was the sword itself, the Hylian character for Feral branded onto the area just after the guard. The blade itself was wrapped in cloth.

Link had forgone showing Biggoron and Medigoron the sword, for if they saw it they would have surely wanted to hold it and examine it. If one of those monoliths felt the urge to kill everything in sight, it will take Castletown's entire army to stop them both.

"What are you going to do?" Navi asked, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Thankfully I held the dark magic in so that touch is required to activate it. It will hold for today, but I'll have to recast it tomorrow."

"Right now, sleep." Link answered, staring at the sword. He needed to talk to Farore about this urgently. "Later I'll try to use the knowledge the High Mages taught me on sealing my masks on this thing. Hopefully, it'll work."

Link didn't bother about the Tektites while he was descending. Despite being as primitive as a spider, they understood his troubled air and stayed well clear. One tried to approach him and he used the unconventional method of kicking it to get it to run away.

He talked to no one as he arrived at Kakariko Village, ignoring the guard's greeting, the nods from people on the street and those welcomes from those in the Sheikah Caverns. Reaching his appointed room, he gently set Navi on the table, laid the sword on the wall and surrounded it with his equipment to make it look less conspicuous to anyone who would enter. Staring at the ceiling, he embraced the soothing hold of sleep.

-

"This isn't good." Farore muttered as Link hazed into existence. "Definitely not good. Damn it, that guy moves quick."

Link stared at the swirling blackness beneath his feet, conjuring the image of the sword in front of him. "Do you know what went wrong?"

Farore grimaced. "Quite fortunately, I do. I wish Reza didn't provoke that demon, but I guess it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. You did a smart move, calling the magic from the place you was most familiar with, but there was too much distance in between you and it. That demon, Shakaku, intercepted the flow and struck the source."

Link jumped slightly at that. "Is the Lost Woods alright?" He would have killed himself if he was the cause for the destruction of his home.

"Thankfully the Great Deku Tree corrected the problem." Farore assured, drifting over to Link's side. "Give it a day or two and the creatures of the forest would go back to their previous habits. Right now, it's like when Ganondorf was in power and you didn't save the Forest Sage."

Link sighed. "I should have thought of that. It's a real trouble now. What do you think I should do?"

Farore shrugged. "Right now, I have no idea. I'll have to talk to Din about this; she has more experience with this stuff than I do. By the laws that govern us Deities, I have a bit of leeway to work with. All I can say is that if you need to use the sword desperately, unite with Navi and the combined powers you two inherited will be kicked up. You'll have my intervention in this matter, and the sword would become just a simple sharp sword."

Link nodded slowly until he noticed something. "Wait, what do you mean by 'inherited'? I knew you were concealing something about my lineage last time, but what is it about Navi? What are you hiding?"

She quietened down at that, a contemplating look on her face. "I guess it really won't hurt, compared to the events right now. For Navi, six generations up she has the blood of Nayru. You yourself, your two of your grandmothers was actually Din and I."

He gave her a queer stare. "I don't remember hearing any tales of the Goddesses coming back down to Hyrule in the last two hundred years. What were you doing down here anyway?"

Farore scratched her head. "Right now, I can't remember why, but we just acted like normal people – faked our births, faked out deaths, the works – I think it was just to experience how you guys lived."

Link looked a bit bewildered about that. Imagine, the same mana that coursed through Farore pulsed through him as well. Farore normally wouldn't have told him this, but was grateful that his mind was taken away from the matter of the sword.

He however knew about his priorities, and returned back to the first topic. "I'm going to try and use Sheikah magic to seal this sword. Do you think it'll work? It was effective on the Fierce Deity mask, so I'm hoping it will work with this."

She considered his question for a moment, running through her mind what she knew about Sheikah skills. "It will work to a certain degree, depending on how well you know their magic. Most dark and cursed items can create some sort of calling, attracting people to use them. Right now, all I think you can do is prevent that call, but will have to be in your fused form to seriously seal it, but only momentarily."

Link sighed and stared off into the distance, watching the edges of the place curl and roll like clouds. "This is really big problem," he said disconsolately, "so after I seal this sword, what do you think I should do?"

"For now, go to Castletown and see whether purification helps. I highly doubt it would. Try and get Zelda's light magic to work on it, anything you can think of. Other than that, make another sword and don't make the distance mistake again."

Link nodded. Smiling sadly, Farore commented, "you've tried hard, and this is truly distressing. Go now and have some real sleep, it'll do you good." Gently she placed her palm on his shoulder, and slowly he faded away.

-

Malik himself was above the moon. Sure, they was no amazing pay with what he would soon do, but the honour bestowed upon his family would be marked in the annals of history forever. Dimly he wondered whether this significant thing suggested a darker future, with the spirits desperate to beckon for any hero to battle, but in his joy it was a small matter.

Now, all he had to do was find Reza and share the news. Bouncing around the Village gave him good vantage points, so it was easy for him to find her playing cards against the richest family with Malon urging her on.

To Reza's dismay, it was just as easy for her to spot him. No matter how blue his hair, eyes and clothes were, camouflage against the sky was not possible to achieve, especially since it was streaked with red and purple. Groaning, she dropped her cards, showing a full house. The rich man scowled, unhappily stacking another bag of two hundred rupees against the enlarging pile on Reza's side.

"What do you want, blue boy." Reza asked wearily. "It's been a while since you had the walls needed to jump around on."

"Hello, Reza! Hello, Malon! Hello, rich guy! Hello, big stacks of –ow!" Malik pouted slightly as Malon slapped his hand as he tried to take one of the bags. "How're you three doing this fine day?"

"Going strong." Malon said brightly, happily looking at all the rupees. Reza had promised that half would be hers, and the thought of all that farm equipment and creature comforts she could buy was a perk.

"Getting a bit bored. I'm not really meant for gambling." Reza yawned, extravagantly using the moneybags as a beanbag chair.

"This is the last time I play against a Gerudo." The man grumbled, deciding to retreat to the more comforting home abode.

"Something great happened this afternoon! They asked me to be the next High Mage!" He exclaimed merrily. He was expecting nearly any reaction, but Reza's boisterous laughter was not it.

"You, become one of those old crones? I find the imagery very funny." She chortled, wiping a tear away from her eye. Glancing at his affronted expression, she comforted, "Sorry, but it's not what I was expecting. What's so special about it anyway?"

That was enough to give him back his cheeriness. "Well, for one thing, I'll be the youngest High Mage," his explained, "it's a great honour, I do get paid for it and they'll teach me some fancy magic and skills! Isn't that cool? Maybe I'll be able to make it rain like Link!"

Malon shrugged. "Maybe, but in my opinion no amount of magic will be enough to make you as good as Link. Speaking of him, where is he anyway?"

"Probably working away in his over-determined fashion, or sleeping. Or eating, come to think of it." Reza commented. "He's meant to make some sort of sword, apparently. I think I'll make a congratulation dinner."

"What happens if he didn't succeed?"

"He's Link. He gets the job done. Anyway, if he doesn't, I'll just say that I felt like cooking today."

"Can I watch?" Malon said eagerly. She wasn't known for her culinary talents for one thing, and she expected that some of Reza's skill might rub off on her. Reza saw no problem with that anyway, and Malon being from the farm should help pick fresh ingredients.

-

It was nearly midnight when Link approached them. That was just as well, as Reza only finished cooking a few minutes before he arrived. He didn't look as disheartened as before, but wasn't springing with life either. Navi sat tiredly on his shoulder, still unused to waking up when it was dark.

"Hello Link," Malon said cheerily, a page of notes clasped in her hand, "how'd your sword go?"

"Uh, well I finished it." He answered uncertainly. Hesitantly he raised the wrapped blade for them to see.

"Looks good, why don't you unwrap it?" Malik said, carrying a pot of hot curry like it was liquid lava. In a sense, you could say it was.

A worried look passed through Link's face so quickly that if Reza wasn't looking straight at him she wouldn't have saw it. Reluctantly he unwrapped it, it's gleaming edge glowing in the light of the embers.

Reza whistled appreciatively, impressed by the fine forgery. "That's one mighty good sword. Can I test it?"

Link's answer was adamant and unexpectedly strong. "I would rather no one used it, much less touched it. In fact, I don't think I would be using it either – something went wrong when I was enchanting it. Demonic interference."

That quietened the group considerably. Shakaku had thankfully recessed into back of their minds, but him mentioning brought it up afresh. No one chose to ask what went wrong.

"Anyway," Reza proclaimed, "it's a bit late but it's dinner time." Elaborately she gestured to the nine dishes she cooked. Link smiled slightly, setting the sword aside to sit on the long bench. Awakened considerably by the scents, Navi drifted off his shoulder, landing on his plate and sniffing the aromas.

"Reza, you cooked today?" She asked blandly, tumbling towards the nearest dish. "Did you wear the apron I asked you to?" Without awaiting an answer she plunged her head into the sauce, lapping up the flavour.

A second after raised her head like a man starved of oxygen. "Boy, that's a real awakener." She wheezed, walking off to wipe away the tears. "I'm going to feel that one in the morning."

Link smiled as they all plunged in. The food reminded them all of past experiences, when they first tasted Reza's skills to the feast held inside the Gerudo Fortress.

Malon choked slightly at the flavour. Clearing her watering eyes, she frowned at the cooking notes she held before throwing it away. "No offence Reza, but even if I could cook it properly no one would want to eat it."

"So," Malik asked, undaunted by the flavour, "what are we going to do next?"

Link raised an eyebrow at Malik; apparently when Sierra tested how much food he could take it really boosted his immune system. "For now, we'll stay in Kakariko Village before visiting Zelda later. Right now I got to talk with the High Mages concerning this sword." He replied, pouring a cup of water for Malon.

Malik brightened (figuratively and literally – there was only so much food he could take before he got the red glow everyone else had). "Oh, speaking of which, I'm going to be the next High Mage! Isn't that cool?" He exclaimed jubilantly.

Link laughed at that. "I can't really see you wearing a long blue cloak and talking monotonously. Doesn't really suit you. Yeah, I know, it's a stereotype, but you're not fitting it."

Malik frowned again. "Why does everyone think I'm ill-suited for the job?"he complained, waving his arms in irritation.

Malon, who was sitting next to him had to move herself slightly to avoid being knocked around by his flailing arms. "Relax, Malik, no one believes you're inadequate, just that you won't look the part. Image isn't everything, you know."

-

The bright morning arrived to the denizens of Kakariko heading off and doing their usual routines and the group splitting again. Malik and Link headed down to the Sheikah Caverns, leaving Malon and Reza above ground and finding something to entertain themselves.

"Do you feel like learning how to shoot, Malon?" Reza asked congenially as they passed the archery shop. Whether she wanted to or not became a moot point as the owner flipped out the 'closed' sign when he saw Reza.

Malon couldn't understand how Reza was so chipper in the morning. Half the night was spent in cruel torture as no amount of water flushed the flavour away. Perhaps it was because Reza was used to such food, or it was her own waking habits. Malon's hair was still frizzy from sleep, her eyes dropped in fatigue.

"Guess not," she yawned, flicking a glance at the sign, "but we can always help Anju with her cuccos. Apparently she pays you if you help her. We can always do with a bit of money."

Reza laughed at that. "If that guy wasn't as filthy rich as he was, we might have sucked every rupee off his body. You already have six hundred rupees for your own spending, and that's three times more than what most adults carry around." Reza faintly noted how the rich guy glared at her through the window, flashing the sign of 'daylight robbery' at her. She shrugged her shoulders; guess she was making more enemies in this town than the health suggests.

"Drat, I was hoping we could do something passive today." Malon grumbled.

Reza shrugged. "If you wanted to do that you could have asked. Playing darts is fairly passive, and I'm sure Malik has some of those in his room."

-

It was unfair to say that all High Mages were moody old farts that just sat in chairs. The Ice Phantom proved that they controlled a high degree of magic and skill, should that repertoire ever be needed. Also, once you got passed the initial test, they came out as quite cheerful, if a bit sadistic, old men.

But as Malik and Link approached, they chose to stay in their solemn chair-sitting form.

"I see the Hero returns."

"I see that the Hero returns with a package."

"I see that the Hero's package is a sword."

"I see the future High Mage returns."

"I see that he is accepting of the tests."

"I see that he is prepared."

All six nodded, all communicating in their minds what they will do.

"We know your request, Hero."

"We know your desire, Hero."

"We will answer it. At your level of skill, it will be arduous, but possible. We will feed you the training needed."

"You will train with Malik to build up your mana reserves further."

"You will train with Malik to make your mana more compliant."

"You will not fail. You must not fail."

Silently they rose from their chairs and gestured for the two to follow them. As they proceeded through the winding tunnels, Navi whispered into Link's ear: "Jeez, they can cut down with all the drama. I hate the way they talk."

Malik heard that, and would have responded if they didn't stop moving. Looking around at their destination, it appeared to be a large dome-shaped room with runes etched onto all available surfaces, entwined in their mystical pattern to create a circle in the centre.

"Wow," Navi mentioned, "this looks kind of like the fairy training ring, just much larger."

The six High Mages glided into positions around the circle and motioned for them to enter the ring.

"In this ring a maze will be created by magical means."

"In this ring getting out of the maze will be by magical means."

"Working together will be up to you to decide."

"Now, let us begin."

If that wasn't scary enough, one of them broke into a grin and said, "Have fun."

They started to chant an archaic language soon afterwards, and slowly walls rose from the ground, shimmering with all the colours of the spectrum. They warped and twisted around Malik and Link, creating an impenetrable labyrinth of solid magic.

"This maze will turn blue once you find the way out. You will find the way out once this maze turns blue." With that last bit of help, the outside world was sealed from them.

Malik pulled a face. "Damn, couldn't they be a bit less cryptic? This maze turning blue?"

Link shrugged. The only thing right now that he could do was just walk. Picking a random direction, he walked off…

…To find himself at a dead end. Bewildered, he turned around…

… To find Malik not there.

"I'm hating this maze already." Navi griped, spinning around to find where they were. "This entire thing is skewering my magic senses, they really knew what they were doing."

Link sighed and walked off another direction, hitting a dead end again.

"I hope Malik's faring better than I am."

-

In a way, you could say Malik had the better end of the deal. He wasn't walking into dead ends, not yet at least. What he got instead was that each time he tried to go around a corner, lances of magic would shoot out of the walls, and three times they nearly impaled him.

He was about to pull his hair out on this matter. The High Mages said that magic would get you out, but the only magic he knew was emotional magic! Good if he wanted to predict the actions of living beings, but lousy against blocks of ma…

Malik blinked, and grinned foolishly at himself. Who said that he had to use his masks against the maze? All magic must come from a source of mana, configured by living beings. His masks would work fine on them…

Flipping a simple mask – joy – on, he searched out for a person to home in on. Scanning around, he found a void of joy, and rotating masks found the person full of irritation. As the person was just pacing back and forth he guessed it was Link. Nodding, Malik was bolstered by the information his magic could cut right through the magical walls, and it would only be a matter of time before he found one of the High Mages.

-

Fed up with getting nowhere Link decided to take the High Mages' hint seriously and hurled a blast of mana at a wall. Surprisingly it bent with the blow, but weaved back into shape afterwards.

"Funny stuff," Navi commented, floating over to wall and ramming it with her shoulder. "Physical force doesn't do anything to it. Hit it with magic again."

Nodding, Link concentrated briefly and aimed a sharper shot of magic this time. Like a drill powering through wood, the wall caved to the attack until a hole appeared. It didn't stay for long, however, and before Link could even reach it sealed up again.

"I'm getting somewhere," Link rubbed his hands together, a pointless action but one he was accustomed to doing, "I'll just have improve on this." Steadying himself he shot out another sharpened blast, but before the wall closed he released a blob of solid mana as a wedge, keeping a small hole open.

Wiping a bit of sweat away, Link grinned at his success. "There's nothing keeping me down." Inhaling deeply, he channelled some of the mana from his shoulder guards to enlarge the wedge until he could step right through it. Proud at the achievement, he readied himself for the next wall.

"Wasn't so hard, was it?" He commented pleased at his achievement. Navi snorted at that.

"You were sweating from the effort. You're more used to changing your mana into something like fire or ice. Plus, those old buggers learned fast – look at your new wall." Her words rang with truth, as the walls surrounding him were not solid and straight, but instead round and spongy. His last attempt would be like bouncing a toothpick off rubber.

"It'll just take a bit more versatility, more problem solving is all." Walking closer, he placed his hand gently against the wall, but flinched and pulled back as it gave him a spark. "Damn, those old buggers learned fast." A lightning bolt came out of nowhere and struck him at that remark.

Navi laughed at Link's crisp form. "Wow, that's a new way to say the walls have ears."

-

It took a bit of searching, but Malik finally found where one High Mage was. Their magic was impressive, for it was just a maze to navigate mentally as physically. But years of experience with his special brand of family magic taught him how to find a person. Quickly flicking on and off different masks, he tried to interpret the magic radiating off the man.

It was like a long block of code, strings of unintelligible sentences that required an understanding of the language to do anything about. Malik was still a junior at all this magic business, and alternating his masks only meant certain parts of the code would show up. He made a mistake of revealing himself to the High Mage, who did the figurative back turning to protect the magic.

Panicking, Malik sent a spark of grumpy emotion (the mask he was wearing was classified as crabby) at a part of the magic, which was just as effective as poking the High Mage in the eye. Suddenly walls collapsed down, and when Malik stuck his hand out no beams of ice magic came out. Not wasting the opportunity, he sneaked past as many corridors as possible.

-

Link blinked in astonishment as the wall he was about to deal with faded away. There was the tinge of grouchiness and he could faintly here someone cursing away, so seizing the chance he walked right by.

"Looks like Malik did something right." Navi said, watching the wall build up again. From the High Mage's blunder she could perceive where the exit was, if only momentarily. Taking things a step at a time first though, Link was faced with the trap mechanism Malik once worried about.

-

Reza and Malon couldn't find Malik's dartboard, so they proceeded out of the caverns and were throwing javelins instead. Reza's logic dictated that a javelin was just an oversized dart, meant to go right through a person's chest instead of just pricking the heart, so should be as simple as playing darts.

For safety reasons they were throwing away at the graveyard where no one was around (watching the cliff face splinter from Reza's throw was enough to get the little boy scattering). Malon had the worry that they were being disrespectful to the dead, but her anxieties were put to rest from Reza's logic.

"Do you believe a soul stays in the body when it dies?" Reza had asked to Malon's worry.

"No, but isn't it still rude throwing weapons around their bodies?"

"Once a person has left the mortal coil, their spirits can wonder wherever they want. Their body was just a home for that while they were alive. Yes, you can say it's like burning a person's house once they moved out of it, but they themselves aren't affected, and no one's living in it anymore."

"It's still desecrating the dead."

"Nabooru is the Sage of Spirit, she knows all this stuff way better than I do. From what she told me, a spirit might feel slightly offended if you urinated on their body, but it's just like seeing a bridge they once walked across collapse when they get to the other side. They can't do anything about it, so they don't really worry about it."

Malon still had her doubts, but joined Reza in throwing javelins. The only sounds were the rustle as the poles collided into the earth, scattering grass now and then.

"Do you know the story of the Stalchids?" Reza asked softly.

Surprised at the question, Malon wondered what it was that caused her to ask. "No, not really, only that they were unhappy people in life."

Reza smiled bitterly at that. "You could say that. The first appearance of Stalchids dates back to the Great War, where Sheikah soldiers collided against the Gerudo army in the fields. Hylians, stuck in the middle, had no choice but to fight for their survival. The efforts of war polluted the river systems, bringing corpses down to the Zora Domain. The water pollution dragged them in as well. As the war encroached closer to what is now Kakariko village, the Gorons had no choice but to fight for their defence. The levels of blood left on the field dragged wild creatures out of the Forest, making the chances of survival harder for those stuck in what appeared as a never-ending war."

Malon stayed quiet.

"Children were abandoned as parents were conscripted to the war effort," Reza continued, "left in orphanages as caretakers slowly dwindled as the battles continued. Without their parents, many died, the rest living in starvation and loneliness. Their parents themselves either died against a merciless enemy, every race caught in the belief that if the other side gave up first, life would get better, or to savage beasts that roamed. Yes, the word 'unhappy' does describe this, but not to its true extent.

"It was their sorrows and despair that sealed their spirits within the rotting carcasses that littered the battlefield. Without any release they were doomed to roam the field, and express their anguishes of life to those that survived. They all died in the cruel grasps of doubt and suspicion."

"I never knew it was that bad, with the War so long ago." Malon whispered, staring desolately at the graves scattering the graveyard.

"The only way to release their souls is to demolish the cage that holds them. It will not grant them retribution, neither will it give them internal peace, but it just gives them a chance to experience the true afterlife. They can deal with the rest later. The numbers that died in sorrow are so great it would take years before the Stalchids stop roaming at night."

They walked over to the rising crest of the graveyard, sitting down on the hillside. Slowly, it began to drizzle and the sky darkened. Reza smiled briefly, the scene of four javelins entrenched deep near a grave slightly amusing. "I'm telling this not to scare you, although that would be an interesting benefit. Nor am I telling you this to make you pity those who were slain, for they have received their share of pity and would most likely want redemption instead. I'm telling you this to make a point: once a person dies, what happens to their bodies isn't really a matter they care to worry about. Those haunted with eternal grief are grateful for the salvation, and those that died in peace progress into the afterlife without a worry. You have to respect the dead, yes, but you shouldn't confuse that with respecting their bodies."

Malon stared at the sky in silence. "Where did you learn that?"

Reza shrugged. "Nabooru used that story to put children to sleep. Every Gerudo hears that story for at least a year when they were toddlers. Sierra used to cry from that story instead, however. Very emotional." She chuckled slightly at that.

It was a strange thing, Malon decided, to lie down and watch the rainfall around you. She peered into the infinite depth of the sky, as though that would recite the stories past to her. She liked the feeling as the water hurtled onto her skin, although it would be a mess later to clean her dress.

She spoke out suddenly as she spotted six black things flying through the sky. "Those are some awfully large ravens."

Reza raised her head, examining the flying forms. "They seem a bit too big to be ravens, and are flying too high. Oh look, they're descending now."

As they got closer, Reza started to curse instead. "By Din! Those are goddamned Dark Angels!"

Malon paused, recollecting her memories with them, none of them being pretty. Hurriedly she got to her feet and yelled to Reza, "You go warn Link! I'll go tell the civilians to take cover!"

-

Malik was busy hunting around for the High Mages, as they were now more cautious about his interruption. No defence is perfect, Malik had learnt, and already he damaged their chants while they were aware of his capabilities. All it would take is a bit of patience, and luck would bring him to them.

Searching around with the worry mask was ingenuity of his mind, Malik believed. With him knocking down their maze right where they stood they would bound to feel a touch of worry, and that would help him track them down and disrupt the maze again, causing greater worry, and so the cycle will go until it goes blue.

Spotting a weak point in one of the High Mages' protective shielding, he wormed his magic through it until he had a full view the magic being weaved. Deliberately showing his presence to spark greater worry he plucked a strand from the weave, making it collapse on itself.

Proudly he walked through another wall and watched their worry and pride grow at his increasing adaptability to the challenge. He paused and flicked on a different mask, feeling, as they were growing angry. But that wasn't right, for that was another six, so adding that two the six High Mages, how come there were twelve?

He had no time to answer that question as the roof collapsed and six dark figures swooped in.

-

Link didn't have such a warning system, but instinct told him to dive aside once the magical maze shattered and brick and mortar started falling down. That was just in time, for a sword raked just where his head once was. Rolling onto his back, Link was given the very close view of one of the Dark Angel's sword.

"Oh, bugger." Link's cursing after that was a lot cruder, as he rolled and dodged from side to side to avoid the thrashing blades. Navi blew straight up into one of the Dark Angel's face, releasing a strong burst of light to give Link a bit of time to get onto his feet.

The six Dark Angels hovered back, circling around Link's form. Link scowled at the wrapped sword at the side. Now would be a good time to put his faith into Farore's wisdom, but he needed to get close enough to the sword.

"Once we get close, Navi," Link breathed out, flicking his eyes to the sword, "I want you to fuse with me. It better work."

One Dark Angel dropped down to the ground, smirking, and threw a piece of paper at Link. Cautious, he picked it up and unfolded it, showing the message 'Shakaku gives his regards'.

With a curse Link dived back down, realising it as a diversion tactic to give them a moment to rush him. Hitting the dirt he heard a sword scrape against the shield he wore on his back, creating sparks that singed against his neck.

Scrambling he raised his shield and ran for his sword. His path was blocked as a Dark Angel landed straight in front of him. Link was used to enemies landing right in front, trained from fighting against spiders when he was young, and a chain-linked edge to the face courtesy of his longshot was effective in getting the Dark Copy to stumble back.

"Now!" Link roared, as he picked up the sword, feeling its mad energies swell within his hand. Navi dived into his back, both their mana moulding around each other in acceptance. Immediately power surged through their united form, the divine protection forcing the feral magic stored deep in the sword. Tattoos spread like ink underneath his skin, becoming veins of supernatural power.

Fused-Link's eyes flashed as he took several hops back, surveying the damage done. The High Mages were trying to safely take apart the maze, their chants strong but an underlying tone of dread as Malik was still sealed within the damaged maze. Some diverted their energies to keeping the group invisible in a sense, to prevent the Dark Angels using them as hostages while their concentration was used elsewhere.

"Let's dance," he growled, his magic condensing the air beneath his feet to raise him to the sky, "dance to the waltz of death."

Two Dark Angels flew to charge at him, black swords gleaming with the raindrops' reflections. Link twirled around the first one, planting a heavy air blow to its shoulder and met the second one sword-to-sword. Snarling he disengaged, spinning quickly to slash the first Dark Angel's back and bring the sword up to block the incoming blade.

Suddenly both Dark Angels pulled back. Surprised, Link spun to see what the other four Dark Copies were doing. Clustered in a group, they concentrated their dark energies into a thick beam that lanced towards Link. Thinking quickly Link forced the raindrops into multiple walls, slowing down the beam and refracting it partially until some dispersed harmlessly. Against the rest that still charged at him, Link condensed another wall of rain and wind, bending it to a concave wall energised with his magic.

As the black beam struck the wall, like a mirror it shot back, ploughing into a surprised Dark Angel. Used to its own dark energies all it got was a major shock, but the last sight it had before its form was dispersed was Link's sword cleaving through its shoulder. With a silent scream the magic holding it together broke apart.

Surrounding himself with an aura of mana Link released it in a ferocious wave, charging the air and rain until they splintered into the three nearby Dark Angels like a stream of bullets. Dark swords chipping under the assault and armour cracking, Link took the opportunity to run his sword into one while it was still stunned.

He hopped back, trying to keep the remaining four Dark Copies in his sight. Down at the collapsed caverns the High Mages and Malik were pooling their concentration to distort the messages being sent to one Dark Angel, making it just float in the sky aimlessly.

'Link!' Navi yelled internally to him, 'watch! Those two Dark Angels you killed, their mana is being recycled and given to the remaining four!' Changing his sight to watch the flow of mana, Link scowled as energy was being distributed back into the others, mending their armour and weapons and deepening their reserves.

"Relax, Navi," Link muttered, "all this means is that they get a bit harder the more I take down." He could sense Navi's dubiousness, but she was accepting of his view.

As three Dark Angels cautiously hovered around him, Link tried to attempt a costly but hopefully helpful trick. Whirling the rain around him, he fuelled the water with the magic template stored in his shoulder guards, breaking up to create another version of him.

Everyone was suitably startled when there were now two Links to contend with, and the Dark Angels were not so sure on which one to attack. One decided to take the risk, and charged at Link.

Link grimaced as sword struck sword, the force of the Dark Copy's flight forcing him back. With a mental shove he commanded the water copy to strike his attacker, the water edged sword striking deep into the black mass, eliciting a mute scream as it flapped back.

Glad of the sharpness of water, Link decided that he couldn't keep up the image for long. Hopping sideways so that he and his copy flanked the Dark Angel, they both charged, a pincer attack of devastating effect. Unsure of which attack to defend against, the Dark Angel did something unexpected: flying back for a bit of space it shot two beams of pure shadow at the incoming forms.

The water copy halted in its tracks as Link had to defend him. Shadow attack striking water, the copy rippled for a moment before like a bomb exploding, sending shards of frozen ice in all directions, the polarity of the Dark Angel's shadow magic against Link's infused divine magic negating all energy within the form, freezing the water.

Link decided to shoot a magic attack of his own, but not to negate the incoming blast. Chanting a quick spell, he unleashed a blast not of light energy, but of fire. The two blasts met, both contending for superiority over one another. Twisting in a furious spectacle of black and red, Link's magic won out, the mixed attack streaking back to the Dark Angel. Surprised, all it could do was raise its sword in defence.

The combined magic was too much for that, however. Unfurling to release its devastating effect, everyone could only watch as it burnt right through sword and arm, dissipating once it scorched away the shoulder.

If Navi were in a different body, she would have been retching. What Link felt instead was a queasy sensation in his stomach, pausing momentarily from the feeling. Not allowing the Dark Angel to heal itself, Link condensed the air a step above it, creating a platform for him to strike down from. Enveloping the sword with light magic, with a battle cry he plunged it deep into the Dark Angel's neck, the follow-through gutting its body right down and past the legs. A second later the body dissolved away, its mana shared to the last three Dark Angels.

That was enough for the High Mages and Malik to lose the wrestle over one Dark Angel's control. With a yank of annoyance, the powered Dark Copy regained management, sending a black bolt towards the seven as a token of its appreciation.

Link cursed and dived to intercept the attack, but his effort was unneeded. Chanting in unison, the High Mages reconstructed the magic maze, but this time as a wall of defence. Layering wall upon wall, instead of breaking through like Link's magic did, the shadow attack bounced off, breaking off and leaving them unharmed.

"Old buggers learn fast." Link muttered to himself, smiling at the accomplishment. He didn't spend much time appreciating their feat as two Dark Angels charged for his unprotected back.

Cursing in surprise Link shot off a lance of mana, hoping to just stall one long enough so he could deal with the other. The Dark Angel however just deflected off into the sky, the green beam of power disappearing into the clouds. The clouds swirled where the shot pierced them, the rain deepening at that point.

The two Dark Angels' charge arrived at the same time, and all Link could do was dodge. In a fast twirl of blades, both sides tried to slice open the other, swords crashed and spun as the battle dropped into a duel of swordsmanship. Link was glad Navi was around to help, for while he devoted his attention to parrying and engaging each coming attack, Navi made sure his retreating steps were on solid air.

It was at that time did the third Dark Angel choose to intervene. Navi this time took control of Link's right hand, but unused to the different body released a small static-like charge at the Dark Copy. Its results were more amazing than just a jolt, as the mana that had cumulated in the clouds crashed down with all its fury, sharpening and homing in on the Dark Angel as a green lightning bolt. The scent of ozone and the flowing dark energy told Link that the surprise attack had vanquished it.

'I would like to point out what happened, but I suggest you get a bit of breathing room', Navi mentioned as Link twirled around a lunge, eyes frantically searching for where the next attack would come. Fighting in air, Link decided, was a lot harder against multiple opponents than on land, as not only could they come from your sides but also above or beneath.

Navi's suggestion sounded good, so Link decided to take it and propelled himself as far as he could from the Dark Angels. "Well, fire away," Link said, "any edge could help right now, those two are getting faster and stronger."

'When you released that first-' swords clashed, the two Dark Angels pushed into a mad frenzy as their increased speed pushed Link's reflexes to the limit, '- shot of mana into the sky-' Link barely blocked the first strike as he ducked under the second, '- I think it gave an incredibly large charge that homed-' Link howled in pain as a strike managed to scrape his shoulder, '- in on the second smaller charge.'

"That's fine and dandy, Navi," Link muttered through gritted teeth, trying to block out the searing pain, "but these guys have a poisonous touch, if you didn't notice, and I don't see how I can use that information." Navi dutifully bottled up a minor amount of their rapidly shrinking mana reserve to his shoulder, purging the poison and healing the wound.

'Just shoot a big blast into the sky then a smaller blast at those two.' She simplified, giving the air beneath Link a bounce to launch Link higher and away from the attack against his leg. Given the opportunity, Link followed what she suggested, a quick blast to the sky followed up by the miniature shot to the two Dark Angels. One of them dodged, the other wasn't so fortunate. The searing lightning didn't kill him, but Link's fireball did.

The rain intensified as Link looked at his last opponent. Fuelled with the power of six Dark Angels, this last man to man would be the hardest. The Dark Angel knew of his worry, and smirking, reformed his sword to a spear.

A brief check at his available mana showed Link that he only had enough energy for one last big attack before he started running on life supporting reserves. Frowning, he looked around to see what could help…

Blinking, he condensed the air to create a temporary shield so he could see what the High Mages were doing. The maze that they made into a shield was being reformed, lines of power unfurling and knotting, creating a complicated web. But Link couldn't see any real use of it, as Malik was just pumping the emotion of hope deep into its weaves and it being strengthened by lightning magic. It's only good use would be if the Dark Angel fell into it, but that would be silly…

…Unless Link forced it in. He grinned slightly; the game now would be herding the wolf into the snare.

Dispelling his shield, both the Dark Angel and Link started to circle around each other. All Link had to do was shepherd it until it was in between the trap and Link, and faith would do the rest.

"You guys are getting smarter," Link spoke over the rain, attempting to get the Dark Angel to follow the cycle, "but I'm still going to kill you. Three times did you try to take my life, the first in Hyrule Castle, the second in the Field, and the third right now. Twice you've failed, and you won't be lucky a third time round either."

There. Aligned. "Let's see how you deal with the last ten seconds of your life." With a yell, Link sprinted to the Dark Angel, who flew straight at him. Instead of meeting blade against blade, Link jumped back, encasing the Dark Copy in a strong mesh of air.

"The first time you guys lost to this attack, and you'll lose to it the second." Grinning cruelly, Link whispered "Now face Volvagia's special attack: Dragon kick!"

Like a meteor crashing into glass, Link broke the cage he created, its collapse acting like blade snapping everywhere, and the force forcing them both to fly straight at the awaiting snare. With a grunt Link discharged the raw mana in his leg, colliding into the Dark Angel like a freight train and leaving Link himself still.

The moment the Dark Angel struck the web; it closed in like a cage, entombing it to its grave. Positive emotion writhed like snakes around it, silent screams released as its anti-thesis warped its form. Five times the web hailed the bolts of lightning, but five times it survived, form shrivelled and shrinking. With a loud chant the High Mages enacted the last bit of the trap, granting the web the magic of fire, the cage shrinking and lines of fire etched onto the Dark Angel. Link smiled weakly at the construct, for the High Mages burnt the rune of 'light' onto it.

With an ear-splitting shriek, the Dark Angel's form shattered like glass.

Slowly Link dropped to the ground and Navi disengaged from him. "Good work guys," he muttered, "now I'm going to take a nap."

A flash of red and tanned arms catching him was the last thing he saw before receding into the blanket of unconsciousness.

-

"Ho boy! You did good Link! That was a fine touch!" Farore celebrated, clapping Link hard on his shoulder. "Good thinking there, and I'm impressed!"

Link groaned with each shudder of his body. "That's nice, but what was the big deal?"

"The big deal? While you were fighting, Nayru was busy sealing that sword of yours. Unfortunately you couldn't hold the form long enough for a complete seal," she pouted, but quickly regained her cheerful composure, "but now if a person glances at it it'll look like an ordinary sword. You'll have to do some magic of you own and visit Zelda for a more perfect seal."

Link smiled. At least unintentionally he did something right. "That's good to know."

"And that's not all!" With a flourish, Farore conjured the seeing well that was replaying the battle in the water's reflection. "The lightning thing was most likely a mistake, but what you have done was bring a bit of Farore down to earth." She smiled genially.

Link raised an eyebrow. "Bring a bit of you to earth? I don't really get it."

She sighed dramatically, creating two seats for them to sit on. "Do you remember what I told you a long time ago? That I could create storms? The rain was actually I trying to slow down the six Dark Angels' arrival, but you managed to tap deeper than that. With your raw mana sent to the sky, it was like a request, being in a stateless form. That allowed me to configure its state into lightning, and a zing of my own, and BOOM! Instant Dark Copy Dissolver!" Link winced as she started to dance a little jig, celebrating around the well.

"That's cool, I guess." Link smiled once she stopped her dance – apparently Din was born to dance, Farore for something else. "Is there anything else I might need to know?"

Creating a checklist, she scanned briefly through its contents. "Well, aside from that all that magic use has depleted it to rock bottom right now, you'll have a bit more mana that you started the battle with, your control over it, wind and rain has improved – nice idea, creating a shield out of rain, by the way – and that it was a good idea not to use your Fierce Deity form, nothing really."

"Wait, what would have happened if I used that mask?"

Farore shrugged. "Beats me, only that Nayru was panting in relief when you entered the battle without it. I think it's because it's made of shadow magic. So you, using shadow magic, wielding a black magic sword, fighting dark magic opponents, wouldn't go down so well. Nayru wouldn't be able to seal the sword for one thing, and you might have absorbed them with they died. Not a good idea."

Link nodded. It made a bit of sense. "Just a question, but why is it taking so much effort for Nayru to work on a demon's influence."

Farore frowned at that. "Two reasons. First off, we're not allowed to interfere at all, but since rules are being broken on the other side we got a bit of space to work on. I'm really the one who's meant to do the sealing, but I'm not such a hotshot at that skill compared to Nayru, so she has less space than me. Secondly, the God the demons worship is one hell of a God. We don't know his name, or what he can do, but if you want to call someone King of the Ring that title is best given to him."

Link blinked. "Ring?" he asked, wondering what that had to do with strength. "What's so special about a ring?"

"Oh yes, you're not a deity yourself. Silly me." Farore excused, giving Link a patronising smile. "Every ten mortal years all the deities have to attend some sort of championship arena, to sort out the weak from the strong. Their God always comes out as the best, either from his worshipper's intense zeal or he's a war god. I have no idea."

"Must be cool watching the divine duke it out. What about you three, where do you guys stand in the match?"

She gave him an embarrassed smile. "Usually, I get knocked out at the third round."

"Out of?"

"Four hundred."

Link stared. Farore looked affronted.

"Hey, strength is comparative. I could smite you and all the armies of Hyrule with a single finger, but some of those deities _train_ for that damned tournament! Anyway, I once was on a winning streak and bested twenty gods, so I'm not too badly off. Din's usually the better fighter though."

He stayed silent, mulling over what was told as he watched the replay of his battle. "It's amazing how things are progressing. Reza can control fire from gaining mana from me. Malik can control ice if I keep the spirit gateway open. Malik is going to be a High Mage in the future. The demons out there are getting nastier each time, and so are the Dark Copies. What is the world leading to?"

Farore sighed, looking off into the edge of the realm. "The tapestry of fate is long and complicated, and we haven't finished weaving it yet. Time will tell, just watch the patterns of past and future." She spoke cryptically.

Link shook his head. Trust Farore to give a straight answer. "Whatever. Anyway, what do you think will happen to me?"

"You, my dear Bearer of Courage? What will happen to you will depend on you yourself. All I can say is that your future will lie past the ocean, and your past will lie in the sands. Other than that, there's nothing I can say."

Picking up a stone, Link tossed it into the well, the ripples freezing the image of him kicking the Dark Angel. "Have you been taking lessons? You're sounding different today."

"Me?" Farore sweat-dropped. "Err… the impudence! How dare you challenge the veracity of speech! Be gone, disbeliever and cretin, dare not the language of the heavens!" Pulling out her trusty mallet, she knocked Link away before he could ask for a proper reply.

As his form twinkled in the distance, she muttered, "I should stop listening to Nayru – I like my slightly stupid talk than her all-wise and meaningful messages."

-

Link woke up to the voices of females speaking. From what he could garner, it appeared to be Reza and Navi.

"So how's it like, fighting in that form?" Reza's deeper and sultry voice asked.

"It's not really fighting – Link does that part – it's more like operating a war machine." Navi's higher pitched voice answered.

"I'm not a war machine." Link claimed loudly, slowly opening his eyes to see Malik's face above him. "I'd prefer – by Farore, Malik, don't do that!"

"Good to see you awake," Malik mumbled, his hand rubbing his nose from Link's instinctive shove, "glad to see you all functioning."

"Sorry, it's just that your face is not a sight I really want to wake up seeing – no offence."

"So what are we doing now?" Malon asked, wearing a yellow sundress. Seeing Link's questioning glance, she said, "The rain soaked my white dress. I'm allowed to have a diverse wardrobe, aren't I?"

"First off is to the mess hall, I'm hungry."

-

After three straight hours of consuming food, an impatient Navi dragged him away from the table. Malik was accompanying them back to see the High Mages (amazing thing magic – with just a few minutes they repaired the damaged caverns), and Malon was with Reza, this time with Malik's dartboard.

"We welcome your arrival, Hero."

"We thank you for your arrival, Hero."

"I see that the battle has strengthened your magic."

"I see that the battle has bettered your magic."

"I see… interesting… your sword has been sealed?" All six forms raised their hoods so they could peer better at the newly bandaged sword, not being able to sense the luring aura. Talking mentally, they decided to chalk it up to divine intervention before leaning back into their chairs.

"Hero, we thank you for protecting us."

"Hero, we wish to give you an honour never given before."

"Hero, we wish you to help us build the maze."

Malik paled at that. "You can't do that! If he helps, it'll be seven against one! I'll be stuck in there forever!"

One High Mage scratched his beard. "That would be nice…"

Link smiled. "I'd love to help."

-

Malon was surprisingly good with darts. She couldn't do the fancy flicks Reza did to show off, but she could still score a bull's eye nine times out of ten. The scenery of the setting sun reminded her of her first meeting with Link, when she asked him to check whether her father was in the castle.

A howl from a wolf signalled the coming of night, and while Reza packed up Malon took the time to appreciate the rising moon.

"Link told me some strange stories about the sky," Malon commented, drawing the outline of the moon with her finger, "he said that in a land called Termina the moon was cursed to fall onto the town, and cried tears. He also said that you could learn how to ignite your arrows by shooting into the morning sun. Weird, eh?"

Reza hummed in agreement. "If it was that easy to learn a magical skill, you would think everyone would have learnt it by now. But if you can believe sentient beings created out of shadow magic, I guess you can believe his stories. I'm just wondering how you don't blind yourself staring at the sun."

-

The sun rose the next morning, but not before eight particular people. The six High Mages, Link and Malik had to get up by four in the morning as the High Mages redrew the runes on the ground. Two hours later, they were positioned around the ring with Link, who was given mental instructions as they chanted to create the maze around Malik.

Link was impressed with their work, for being involved he could see them stamp out any weak points in the maze and following up the runes create the traps. Their teamwork was near flawless, as one High Mage deflected Malik's probing mind if he targeted another. Malik himself later decided to hunt around for Link instead, but the magic firetrap Link installed knocked him off that idea.

It was strenuous for Link, but was an impossible task for Malik. Sweating from the strain, he made emotion duplicates of himself so that the traps would go off elsewhere, and created mirrors to see around corners with the little bit of frost magic he found in himself.

Six hours inside the maze, the walls glowed a serene blue before dissipating.

-

As the group headed away from Kakariko Village, they all seemed to have something to be cheerful about. Malik had just suffered and conquered the test of the maze, Malon had her sweet memories of history past, Link was glad of the battle done and sword sealed, and Reza…

"How do you get fire arrows from shooting the morning sun? How do you discern morning from afternoon, anyway? What stops you from getting blinded?"

Link smiled. "It's a shot of faith, Reza. A shot of faith."

-

A/N: Aha! Chapter finished! Yeah, this probably wasn't my fastest update, but I think I did this in… four days? Not bad, considering what's going on here.

If I may ask, there is a request I would like to send to H7 regarding my other fanfiction idea. You see, separated from my computer, I cannot play FF7 and find the information needed, and stingy school won't allow me to visit game faq sites to gain the knowledge. My request is that you help tell me what happens in Wutai – the name of the mountain, Yuffie's father, the Don, etc since I forgot it all. This request is being asked to any of you that know the game, and I will make a special thanks to all those who contributed in the story. You can e-mail me at 

Thanks guys! And I hate the subject technology… hate doing frigging research. Oh yeah, H7, since you're opening a pet shop, this is a stupid request but can you get some reptiles in it? I love turtles and iguanas…


	23. Feral Magic

Chapter 22: Feral Magic

It was at this point that Malon broke from the group, heading back to the Ranch while they proceeded to Castletown. Hugging the large sack of rupees protectively to her chest, she bade Link a warm goodbye before riding off.

"She seems awfully happy," Malik commented, "goes to show that money does make the world go round." It wasn't meant to be a mean statement, nor was it meant to be 'pointing fingers' in some way, but Reza found it as a statement directed against her.

"Are you saying that stealing is wrong? Is that it?" She asked strongly, riding her horse right next to Malik.

"No, I'm not saying that, but isn't stealing wrong?" Malik replied, slightly intimidated by her unwavering glare.

"Are you now suggesting that I'm a bad person? That I always do wrong stuff, since 'stealing is wrong'? Is that what you're insinuating?" She pressed. Link raised an eyebrow at that.

"Well, to the Sheikah stealing is wrong." Malik tried to placate her rising anger, twiddling his fingers. "Maybe for Gerudo customs stealing is fine, so you're a bad person, but a good Gerudo." He smiled brilliantly at his intellect.

That was not improving Reza's mood however. "Are you saying that the Gerudo are bad people? That the Sheikah are the paragon of virtue, everyone should follow their example? Is that what you're saying, the people of the desert are the scum of Hyrule?"

Malik cringed from her angry glare. "No."

Immediately her angry demeanour disappeared. "Relax, no harm done. I was just seeing if you are as weak as before. Apparently so." Chuckling lightly she rode back to her previous position.

Malik frowned. "It's not nice playing with people's feelings. People get hurt."

She shrugged. "So what?" she countered uncaringly, "Most jokes are cruel, picking on the weaknesses of other people, taking advantage of prejudices, stereotypes and plain sick humour. People get hurt from those as well, so who are you to blame me when you don't blame them?"

Malik 's frown deepened. "So since you're not the only one doing it, I'm not allowed to stop you from doing it, am I? Just because I have no power against those others? That attitude doesn't help people stamp out such cruelty."

Reza flashed him a smirk. "Touché, glad to know you have a backbone."

Link smiled at their antics, watching Malik's face redden like a tomato, as he disliked her idea of testing people. Tuning out his yells of 'better ways' and 'kindness', Link wondered how much Zelda still had in terms of magical power. A sage she was in the future, and most likely a sage she would be in the past, but without use magic weakens. So far in the present she didn't really need her powers yet. Whether she used it when the two Dark Angels attacked the castle would be a secret of hers, but even only using it once: she'll know the theory, but will lack the muscles for it.

Ah well, no real worry. With Nayru helping in sealing the sword, he doubted it'd be much of a problem. It should look harmless, a plain sword, even though he knew it was slightly different.

Briefly he wondered what would happen if someone did pick it up. Perhaps it would be one of those things best left unexplored.

Would it deform the mind like Ganondorf's magic of the past? Would it be permanent? Would it crush the will of men, and turn them to mindless machines? Would it twist muscle and bone until they aren't men anymore?

Link shuddered at that thought, and felt a small tweak of respect for Ganondorf. His magic was impressive, terrible yes, but impressive in its enormity.

Now on that subject, he realised he forgot to ask Nabooru about how the Desert folk were living without a King. They seemed to be doing very well, but restlessness was apparent in its poorly disguised form. He might have been mistaken, of course, misreading their longer times in sermons and at prayer, but it was a possible tweak in their culture.

Putting his hand lightly against the hilt of the sword, he could feel the seal straining against the dark magic. Grimly he removed his hand; the sword was as potent as before. Maybe time would take its edge away, but then again maybe time would strengthen it. Whatever time would do, Link felt that he'd have to do something about it soon.

"Fine! I challenge you to a duel!" Malik yelled, pointing so that his gaze flowed down his arm and Reza's nose at the end of his finger, "a duel to end this argument!"

Reza smirked. "Oh, are you feeling suicidal today? A duel you challenge, a duel I accept."

Malik scoffed at the bloodthirsty gleam in her eyes. "Don't be silly, I'm not putting my neck on the line. It's a duel of cards, of monster cards!" He raised a brown pack of cards stored on a belt pouch to her face, flamboyantly flipping it quickly to create a fan effect.

Link and Reza stared. "What the hell?" they both said in unison.

Malik frowned at their response. "It's a new game in Kakariko Village, playing with monster cards. They just have a little drawing covering half the thing on a monster, a bit of a description underneath and its strengths. It's a rage with the little kids, so I thought I'd have a go on this thing."

Link stared. "It's cool with the kids, but how about children our age? How do they like it?" he inquired, examining the deck and waving the card as the gloss reflected sunlight differently for each colour.

Malik shrugged. "No idea," he replied, "didn't see them play, so I gather that they don't really enjoy it."

"Has it ever occurred to you why they don't like it?" Reza asked cynically, gesturing to the deck. "Maybe because it's a little kid's game, and time can be spent on something better?"

"Are you backing out of my challenge?" Malik shot back, attempting a different approach. "Turning coward now, eh?"

She rolled her eyes at his dramatic hand motions. "As stupid as this game sounds, I've already accepted."

Link raised a hand to his eyes, checking the position of the sun. "It's going to get dark in two or so hours, so if we set up camp in an hour you two can play with the remaining sunlight."

-

For some strange reason Malik had bought enough cards to make four decks of fifty plus the accompanying side decks of fifteen. He had plucked the best card combinations to make his own deck, leaving Reza to shift through the remaining to find those that she liked.

"What an ugly moving monster," Reza noted distastefully, showing Link what appeared as a green bunny, "who on earth made this up?"

Taking the card, he checked the back of the cards. "Game Masters Castletown," he read slowly, "whoa, I didn't know such a group existed. No one likes the Happy Mask shop anymore?" This new company took the place where the mask shop once stood, leaving Link to wonder what happened to the owner and his search around the world for masks.

As Reza read the rules manual, Malik was attempting to discretely sabotage her deck. Pulling out cards and replacing them with random cards, his hand moved at such speed that his fingers became invisible in the act.

As Reza and Malik started playing, Link went off to check the scenery. The red sunset cast the trees with an almost divine glow, small beams breaking through the canopy to bounce off the floors of the forest. Although with less variety and smaller than the Lost Woods, the patches of dense forest surrounding Hyrule were amazing to look at as the sun arose and set.

While they were occupied, there was no harm going off for a walk. Whistling a jaunty tune he flicked his gaze back to where the wrapped sword was located before walking off. By both Malik and Reza's care no one should touch it.

Malik himself was having a few problems of his own. As fast as his hand was, it was apparent that Reza's hand was faster. Each time he looked away from his hand of cards to the playing field or to stare accusingly at Reza, his cards would change all the time. From a collection of all monster cards of two seconds ago, it was now a mixture of magic as well. Only person to blame was Reza, but how to go prove it…

"You've been cheating!" He cried loudly, forgoing all hunting of evidence. "Do you know nothing of decency? Cheater!"

She yawned at his antics, waving her hand in a dismissive gesture. "So," she drawled, "you're accusing me of cheating, and yet you tried to cheat yourself? I wonder where the hypocrisy in this is hidden." She added on sarcastically, pointing to her own deck.

Embarrassed at his own tactic, he lowered his head in shame, mulling over his poor attempt at trying to win. Stupid Malik, he thought grumpily, forgoing all rules and regulations. Where did I go wrong? Why did I… those aren't my cards…

Looking up, Reza smirked, waving her cards which were Malik's previous hand. "Good, but not good enough," she chuckled. "Attack, parry, riposte, touché. No one beats a Gerudo at cheating. And since you cheated first," she added as an afterthought, "I guess my own moves are legal repercussions."

Bah, knew I shouldn't have done so.

Grumbling to himself from his losing position, he wondered why Link left his sword behind. Ah well, he'll come back for it later.

-

Link was enjoying one of the few pleasures he managed to do while Ganondorf's rule held strong. Lying down on the grass, he watched the sunlight refract against dew remaining on the blades, the spectrum from red to violet displayed against a green background.

Navi fluttered to his nose, an irritated look on her face. "Now's not a time to be lying around," she said sternly, "especially with your goal so close in sight. Why'd you leave the sword behind, anyway? You're getting lazier at the wrong time, you know."

If Navi weren't standing on his nose, he would have nodded. Instead he hummed in agreement. "True, but while those two are having a bit of fun, why can't I? The sun's going to set in a while anyway, and we'll travel when it gets dark later. I'll worry about the Stalchids in half an hour."

His reply was cut off abruptly by the sound of ground breaking and bones shuffling into place. Eyes widening, he looked at the Stalchid stumbling towards his encampment.

"What?" Navi cried, "The sun is still up! What are they doing now?"

The earth ruptured again, multitudes of animated bones progressing to the unsuspecting Reza and Malik. Link had no doubt that they'll be able to protect themselves, but what were they doing so early? The only thing different about the group from before was…

"Damnit," Link snarled, shoving the head of a Stalchid off as he passed, "the damned sword!"

Outrunning them wasn't a problem, but now they were coming in larger numbers than expected. Malik and Reza had already packed away their game and were standing in a ready position, the fire protecting their backs as they watched the deformed skeletons pile forwards.

Spotting Link, Reza moved to allow him to reach his bow and arrow. "There's something unsettling these already restless spirits," she whispered out, flicking out her boomerang and carving a hole in the swarming ranks, "any idea what it is?"

He frowned as the numbers just filled in the hole, literally creating a wall of bones. "No one can hear the call of the sword anymore, but who's to say it can't hear the calls of others? If it's leaching off the anguish of all these people, we have a problem."

Malik laughed nervously, looking at the sword: still plain looking, not glowing evilly. "That's just a guess, right? Swords can't think."

"A guess it is, but it's the only explanation I can come up with for this event." Like a swarm of locusts the Stalchids stopped their slow procession and started charging, red eyes flashing in the failing sunlight. Reza snarled and with a spin perfected from use bashed off multitudes of heads, leaving Malik to take down the uncontrolled bodies.

"You know," she grunted out, chopping a way back to the group, "there is a myth that there are Gods who are in control of separate stuff. Gods of water, light, wisdom and many others. Madness is also in one of those myths."

Giving up on the bow Link hurriedly put on his golden gauntlets, strength surging through his arms, allowing him more control over the Megaton hammer. With a roar he caved in another Stalchid, the weighted end striking from skull down to foot and reducing it to powder. "That's nice to know, but what does it have to do with the sword?"

Malik nodded. "That myth is also part of Sheikah beliefs – that's the principle of my masks." Struck by the idea, he flipped on a soothing mask and blasted a wave of the emotion out. Stunned, the closing ring of Stalchids stopped moving, allowing Reza to shred them back down. "If such a thing is true, I think all that condensed dark magic gave it thought."

Link sighed as the numbers kept pouring in. Suddenly he snatched the two scimitars off Reza (eliciting a surprised growl) and attempted his version of a Gerudo spin. As untailored as it was, it managed to send him deeper into the swelling ranks, allowing him to do a bit of his own magic.

Angrily kicking nearing Stalchids off, she yelled to Link, "Next time you want to borrow them, ask!"

Link didn't bother to give an apology, filling his clothing and equipment with protective energy. Now that the safety measures had been put in place, he was ready to unleash hell from heaven. With a call of 'Din's Fire' the mana bottled in him spewed out in a dome of fire, bones reduced to soot as it coursed past, creating a large gap within the encircling Stalchids.

Smirking at his accomplishment, he wondered where Navi was. Hopping back to the group he saw that she was trying her best to bounce off anyone that came close to the sword, giving small sparks in the faces of the Stalchids and creating miniature fissures in between their eyes.

She couldn't hold them all off, however, and the group was a bit too far to come to her aid. A Stalchid managed to grab the hilt of the sword, and with air thick with dark magic the other Stalchids collapsed into the ground.

That there were less people to fight didn't make things easier. With growing trepidation bones erupted from the ground the sword-bearing Stalchid was wrapped in, growing in size and expanding further than the usual Stalfos. With a wail of agony as souls were torn and fuelled into the new construct, the bones shined a purple hue and eyes glittered dark red as it finished growing.

"Oh, sweet mother of…" Reza cursed, eyes rising to meet the angry glow of the Stalfos. With a scream of a hundred souls it charged, its size belying its speed as it swung the sword at her. Dodging out of the way, she watched its charge run rampant, it taking a few moments to stop and turn around.

"Well," Malik muttered, "we know now that it's not the smartest thing alive."

"Just the strongest thing dead." Link grumbled. Handing back to Reza her scimitars, he pulled out the Megaton hammer in preparation.

Link had fought many giants in his life: the four giants of Termina, for one thing, and some oversized monsters now and then. The sword had created a new undead creature that wasn't the largest, but looking at the feral magic holding the bones together it looked like one of the worst.

As it charged again Reza ran to meet up with it, hooking its sword with both her scimitars and using that is a lever to launch her higher from. Above the construct, she started spinning in a different version of the Gerudo spin, becoming a wheel of flashing blades. Like a buzz-saw she crashed against its skull. Jumping backwards she surveyed her handiwork, growling in frustration at the results.

The feral magic not only held the thing together, but protected it from falling apart. The enlarged Stalchid stood stunned for a moment, a purple aura rippling where it was hit. It eventually got back to a more ready stance, her attack leaving it unscathed.

Cussing lightly, it appeared that physical attacks did it no damage while it was holding the sword. That left magic as their only option.

Looking at the sky, Link wondered whether the sun would be their salvation. It would only come up in another seven hours or so, but a bit of tweaking might change things slightly.

Raising the ocarina to his lips gave a strange response from the enlarged Stalchid. Before he could play a note it charged straight at him, sword flailing as it tried to hack off his arms. Surprised all he could do was roll out of the way. Its attack was relentless, Malik and Reza's attempt to stop it ignored as its sword followed Link's stumbling form.

Eventually Link had to forego the ocarina to raise his shield in defence, the impact jarring his arm and he cried out in pain as it felt like his shoulder was dislocated. Luckily he still had controllable motion of his arm, and warily he looked at the now standing giant Stalchid.

"Damnit, it would be a lot easier if you two could use magic as well." Link grumbled. "If I can only be the distraction and the way to kill it, we got a real problem."

"Why? What were you trying to do?" Malik asked before flipping on a mask. Everyone felt a surge of camaraderie flow through them, strengthening their resolves and stunning the giant. Reza tried to attack it again, but it appeared that the sword was not dependant on the user's consciousness, the purple aura protecting it yet again.

Drawing an arrow, Link focused his mana into it, giving a small whisper, the words morphing the mana from its raw form to cold magic. Spell cast he released the arrow, but by then the Stalchid gained control again and blocked it with a surprisingly quick arm. "At least we know magic works against its bones – it wouldn't have bothered blocking otherwise. Without the sun song, we either defeat it quick or wait until sunlight." Both prospects didn't sound so achievable.

Navi was strangely quiet during the first part of the battle, and her reason was given then. Praying quietly she was slowly building up the minor amount of mana she held, weaving it and refining it until the small amount was as effective as a bullet. With a battle cry she launched the mana out, striking hard into the Stalchid's shoulder, penetrating past the purple aura and shattering bone. A wail escaped the Stalchid, a glowing wisp of white smoke escaping from the injury before sealing up.

"Link, you're good, but I'm better." Even in their predicament she managed to have the energy to crack a joke. "You said that you could become a giant shadow thingy, right?"

A smile cracked his face at her description. "Yes, I can use the Fierce Deity mask. Why?"

"You pretty much sucked up the energy in the Dark Link before in that form. Do that trick again, drain it of its armour."

Link wasn't entirely certain with Navi's plan. Farore had said that dark magic pitted against dark magic would most likely mix badly, but while they had no other plan, he might as well.

"Let's pray for the best." He muttered. Reza blanched slightly as he pulled out the mask, her own memories with it not all that cheerful. She didn't voice out her disagreements, but watched intensely as he unlocked the mask, allowing its magic to mould his form.

For Malik, seeing the world through his masks, if he closed his eyes it felt like another enemy forming right in front of them. Dark magic so dark it was blacker than the night, he felt the emotions of anger, fury and sheer rage roll off the new form. He knew that this was Link in a different shape, but was pitting madness of one kind against madness of another the answer?

Standing tall Link watched detachedly at the Stalchid. Through his new perspective he could see the feral magic leak off the sword, entwining around its arm and wrap around the bones like a protective shell. Summoning up his helix sword, he smirked at his opponent.

"Hello, puppet," he rumbled out, inwardly noticing that Navi and the others were creeping a distance back, "how well will you dance when your strings are cut? Let's see how well you dance, puppet, when I break the dance of the puppeteer." Foregoing the usual battle cry he ran straight up to the Stalchid, it only managing to block in time, Fierce Link's continuous strikes forcing it back.

Each time sword met sword resulted in black energy dispersing from point of contact, the Feral sword attempting to hold up the shield and Fierce Link's attack partially in the shadow wave released from his bottomless well of mana.

His smirk still on his face he twisted the sword when they collided once more. Like a hook the helix shape grappled the edge, forcing it aside and leaving the Stalchid wide open. Not leaving the opportunity ignored, he drove his shadow sword deep into the construct. A wail of excruciating pain escaped it as he twisted his sword.

"Playtime's over, puppet." With a cruel laugh Fierce Link released a wave of shadow energy, shattering bones and disrupting the sword's flow of feral magic, and just as quickly started drawing it back in, draining the magic leaking off the sword. As the seconds ticked by his laugh became more sinister, his sword continually crashing down against the crumpled bones, energy leached off and fuelling his source of mana. Eventually the sword, sensing defeat, shut off its supply lest it be drained dry.

Drinking in all the new energy, Fierce Link's smirk deepened as he looked at the group huddled, backs to the fire. Flexing his muscles he plunged the sword deep into the ground, an underground wave of shadow energy suddenly erupting behind Malik and extinguishing the fire.

Cockily he grabbed the sword Feral, flicking it around in his hand and amused at its attempts to wrap its magic around him.

As strong as condensed emotion is, it is nothing compared to a god.

With a dramatic yawn he tossed the sword at the group, Reza ducking to avoid being nicked by its edge. Warily they watched Fierce Link stand there and delighting in the night sky before finally he took the mask off.

Shivering, Link stumbled to the smoking fire, burying it and replacing it with new wood.

"I hate that mask." He said finally, spending the rest of the night rekindling the fire and sitting by it.

-

Daylight came early, especially since Link used the sun song to speed things up. Despite their activities last night they were in quite a happy mood, joking and laughing until they reached the gates of Castletown.

Reza surveyed the walls, appreciating the attention spent on defence. "It's a good idea, walling up against a mountain so that the enemy can only attack from one side, but you're putting a huge bet on that whoever's going to be attacking won't come down from the mountain."

Link nodded, although he could see why they placed that bet: snowy caps all year round and steep terrain, it'll take an army willing to go without supplies to try and cross that way, for any supply line would find it problems often.

The zeal from his fused form seemed to have abated in Castletown, people just giving him cheerful smiles and nods instead of the waves of the adoring horde. He had a vague suspicion that Zelda did something about that, but didn't care anyway; he enjoyed his own space.

Malik's card game seemed to be the rage over here as well, and instead of seeing kids running around wearing masks of all kinds, they were sitting down on steps, tree roots and anything to be used as a chair and hunched over a small ring of cards, all silent for a moment before yelling out victory or defeat. Needless to say some of the adults were happier without needing to worry where they stepped, although there were a few concerned about the health of sitting down all day.

As they group approached the gate Link took a pit stop to the Temple of Time, leaving the rest to worry about entry. There was no problem negotiating entry, for Tylos was at duty, writing… poems?

"Ah, hello you two!" He greeted cheerfully, raising his head from the sheet of paper he slapped against his thigh as a table. "It's good to see you in fine health!"

Reza leaned over, looking at his poem. "It's nice to see that literature hasn't died out yet. What's this about?"

"It's a poem dedicated to the beauty of Hyrule Castle. I'm a novice at this, but I think it's quite good." Clearing his throat loudly, he raised the sheet to eye level and spoke clearly:

"A field of green grass,

A sky filled with blue,

The days and nights pass,

Under a benevolent rule."

Malik blinked. "Ah… what does benevolent mean?"

Sighing Reza whacked him on the head, belittling him for paying so little attention to classes. "It's good, Tylos, I like it." In her current mood, he found it hard to tell whether her tone was genuine or sarcastic. Sure, it was short, but it took half an hour of pondering to wonder how to arrange and time the words.

No matter, it was the beginning of a literary career, so he didn't care for minor hiccups. Opening the gate for them, he offered to escort them to the gates, and the three walked in companionable silence, he himself analysing the open grassland to see whether there was anything worth noting to put in poetry.

As if reading his thoughts, a voice appeared right behind them. "There is a reason why there's a field in front of a palace, despite there being two walls sandwiching it." The voice, strong but undeniably feminine mentioned casually. Surprised, they all swivelled around, Tylos extending his spear in a defensive posture. Impa hooked the shaft beneath the blade, keeping it at a good distance from her head. "The longer it takes for a spy or thief to get in and out, the greater the chance of finding him or her. I'm disappointed in you, Malik; I've been following you three for a minute already and you didn't notice my presence."

The boy in question frowned, and although her tone was light-hearted, he felt slightly ashamed. "Hey, you're the Sage and the king of the hill – or tunnel, whatever – actually, it should be queen, shouldn't it – but then again, a queen doesn't serve under another monarch-" His pondering was cut short by a whack from Reza, her grumbling about getting to the point.

Impa shrugged. "So, I'm the top of the top. But soon, you will too." She smiled broadly, disengaging the spear and letting Tylos pull it back. "I await your achievements as next High Mage."

People knew the Sheikah as secretive people, political guards and assassins, spies and infiltrators. With such a myth behind them many would believe they'd be cold, dispassionate people with an eye of a hawk and tongue of a snake. Normally Impa would back up such a view, acting as such herself, but as they walked to the entrance and to Zelda's chambers she was jovial, often slapping Malik's back.

As they walked past the tapestries, Malik decided he preferred a grumpier Impa. His back was starting to ache.

-

It was getting slightly irritating holding the sword, as he had to continually feed a small amount of mana to prevent it from surging its dark thoughts into him. The aura surrounding the Temple of Time seemed to calm the sword, and in thanks for such an action Link deposited a sizable donation.

Kneeling down at one of the benches, he could hear the quiet but distinguishable choir in the background. It had a soothing effect, knowing that there were that many holy men in prayer somewhere in the Temple, religion uniting their minds and voices.

"To the three Goddesses above," he whispered out, bowing his head in humility against the greater powers he was praying to, "I pray for your well-beings and that of the people around me. Please grant me the faith to deal with the new evils of the earth. Nayru, I implore for the wisdom for this crisis. Din, I wish for the power to act upon it. And Farore, I request the courage needed to stand unafraid. And Farore, I wish you'll find slightly better way to not talk to me." He added as an afterthought, remembering the times she kicked, booted, slammed, pelted, shoved and hammered him to get him to leave the edge of space or whatever they communicated at.

As he rose to he feet, a priest walked in from his previous position of meditation, bowing amicably at Link. Unfortunately such a bow brought the wrapped sword into view, and it was sacrilege to bring a weapon of death to the altars of the Goddesses.

"It is pleasant to see a boy keep the tradition of sword fighting in his heart," the priest said coldly, "but I wish that he leave such a desire at the entrance, rather than despoiling the place of worship."

Link found the admonishment a bit funny: after all, he talked to Farore in person, and she didn't seem to care whether he insulted her subtly or directly (not that he cared to try). Nonetheless, it wasn't a good idea to hare such beliefs, and with an apology he left the Temple, the priest further grated by his cheerful disposition.

One of the beauties of knowing the Royal Family personally meant that he gained special favours now and then. Since creeping inside the Castle was good for stealth, agility and patience training, he couldn't be stuffed to do it this time. His shield bore a special addition to it, the insignia Zelda inscribed onto it, and it pretty much acted like a passport through the whole of Hyrule. Right now, it was an entry ticket past the guards.

Entering Zelda's courtyard showed something unusual. Link knew that Impa could fight, and usually fought with knives quite similar to Malik's, but it was strange to see her actually use them. Battling it out was Impa against Reza and Malik, the speed of youth against the skill of age, and the strength of numbers against the control of one. Impa started gaining the upper hand when she suddenly flicked out a rapier out of nowhere, her changing fighting style pushing back the two.

"I give up," Malik panted, falling to the ground in exhaustion. "Where do you hide all those weapons anyway?"

Impa chuckled heartily, twirling her rapier. "As Sage of Shadow you learn how to warp space slightly. Well, it looks like it's just you Reza." Reza frowned slightly muttering 'wimp' to Malik as she readied her scimitars. A direct blow against Impa's rapier would snap it like a twig, but so high was Impa's skill with her weapon of choice that sometimes it acted like a snake, dancing around the attacks.

Quietly Link borrowed Tylos' spear, smiling slightly. Quietly he crept closer to the duelling duo. If he could time his thrust right (that was the only trick he knew with a spear, anyway), surprise would aid him and…

There! Not a moment after he got into range an opening was given, Impa extending her arm in a lunge at Reza's wrists. Reza dodged out of the way, leaving the Sage to withdraw. As her elbow bent, Link lunged out, the blade unwavering in its target against her sword's guard.

With a clatter his presence was given to the two women, Impa's sword flying off to a side. Looking at the grinning Link, Impa wondered how he managed to creep up on her, and it didn't help matters that he was trying a fancy twirl with the spear.

"Not so a hot shot, eh?" he said proudly. "In the thick of battle, so subtle are my movements, so quiet are my steps that I am the arbiter of my enemy's fate."

Impa nodded at his wisdom. "True, your timing was impeccable, but if I was not fighting Reza, your attempt would have been foiled."

He tossed the spear back to Tylos, giving him a salute in thanks. "Yeah, I saved Hyrule through luck alone, I figured that if such luck will stay with me for two years, it will stay with me for longer. Where's Zelda, I didn't think she would be so happy to see scratches all over the stone walls of her courtyard."

"Zelda got the flu," Malik said from his sitting position, "made Impa our guide around the Palace while she lies in bed. I bet she's probably sneaking off, using our entry as an excuse to get Impa to leave her alone and sneak into parties and dances and stuff."

Impa laughed, walking to grab her rapier. "There aren't any parties held right now, and she's more likely to try and tamper with our weaponry that dance." She paused at that thought.

"Not so sure about that, are you?"

"No."

"Sending guards?"

"Right on it."

-

Quite rightly as she guessed Zelda was goofing off in the armoury, acting very un-ladylike in her swinging a claymore in wild circles. Reza was impressed at the strength needed to keep hold of such a heavy weapon, but the guards and Impa were of a different mindset.

Tell off and reproached, she shuffled back to her bedroom, mumbling about the Gerudo way of curing a person was to feed them lots of exercise, as well as vegetables. But while they were in the armoury anyway, Link decided to make his request known.

"While we're in Castletown, can I have this sword held inside your armoury? I really don't want it lying around anywhere." As a Sage, she could feel the dark vibes pulsing off the sword, masked by some unknown intervention but still there. The request wasn't too hard to grant anyway, and posting another guard in patrol wouldn't hurt.

"So, why are we here?" Malik questioned as they walked through the streets of Castletown. He watched with mild fascination as Reza deftly nicked the money pouch of a running thief, tossing it to the guy who was chasing. Humming cheerfully she ignored the sudden yelps behind her and a tumble as the roles were reversed.

"Well, for one thing, there's a tournament in three days held in the Castle, and everyone's welcome to participate or simply watch. I believe Zelda was trying to train for that." Link said. "The other reason is that I need to find a way to cleanse the sword, and I might have to wait until she gets better for her help."

The tournament caught Reza's interest quite well. "Oh? Are there any regulations for the tournament?"

Link shrugged, grabbing a poster off the wall. Handing it to Reza, he glanced at the huddled children playing their card game, watching one kid break into tears as the bet was all the cards, and he lost.

Reza looked at the poster, reading its contents. "Damn, they don't allow any Gerudo. Weaklings. 'This tournament will unfortunately deny combat from Gorons, Gerudos, Sheikah and Zoras for their better might in combat, and we'll hold a separate tournament for said parties another time.' Wimps, they're already saying that they're the worst of the bunch. And with a measly prize of… well, not so measly at all."

Malik shrugged. One hundred and fifty thousand rupees – you could buy half of Kakariko village with that amount, although the money required to sustain it would drain your coffers dry.

-

Before the gates of Castletown closed, a lone traveller entered. The guards were quite relaxed people, although there was reason to be suspicious of anyone wearing a long cloak.

"Excuse me, good sir, but we need to identify all strangers when they enter." The first guard called out. The stranger reduced his strides to slow steps, eventually stopping in front of them.

The stranger slowly pulled down his hood, showing a head full of red hair and an eye patch blocking his right eye. "I have been identified, may I go now?" He asked caustically, drawing to his full height that towered a foot above the guard.

The second guard hesitated; with the tournament approaching they were told to be cautious about anyone who came, after all it's not the best idea to let everyone into the palace. "We would need your name and length of stay."

The stranger shrugged. "You wish for my name? Let me leave it as Shakaku, and for how long I stay, who cares?" He turned back so the aisles of Castletown were in his view, his cloak sweeping rudely at the guards.

The first guard cleared his throat. "I'm sorry good sir, but with that attitude we can only let you in tomorrow at daylight – regulations, you know." He added apologetically, although the stranger didn't seem to care.

Shakaku smiled cruelly, turning around and pulling out a long thin sword hidden in his cloak. "And what happens if I don't care about your rules?"

Trouble was trouble, and a drawn blade is always trouble. Readying their spears, they lunged at the stranger. He had more experience than them in the matters of fighting, and easily parried both blows before jumping off.

Sighing dramatically, he called a small bit of magic, wrapping it around each guard. It wasn't anything noteworthy, but would do the trick well enough. His powers of shape shifting morphed both soldier's perspectives of each other, and cloaking himself in the shadows, watched amusedly as they each thought the other was him.

While they were duelling he quickly dispatched them, slicing off both their heads in one stroke. Walking to the guardhouse he lowered the gate, smirking all the time. Before it closed he tossed both heads into the moat; let everyone else draw their conclusions with the bodies.

"To the Black King, hear my prayer. Give sentience to Feral, and give hell to all that hinder me."

High up in the Royal Palace, held within an armoury patrolled with guards, a sword flashed a dark shine before resuming its previous outlook.

-

Everyone felt it. Impa, Zelda, Link and Navi, all who were well attuned to the magic surrounding them, noticed the small ripple in the usual flow. It was nothing serious, very small and very quiet, but might be worth looking up.

Impa called a few guards to her and left to patrol the hallways. As Link, Reza and Malik retired for the night, Navi flew off, claiming she could almost recognise that disturbance.

"Don't take too long," Link called out before hitting the sheets. His last night spent fighting against the oversized Stalchid was especially tiring, since he foregone any sleep. The ripple felt slightly black, and he assumed it was the sword trying something. Nonetheless, it was a small thing; hopefully he could deal with it in the morning.

Things weren't that easy of course, and would never be.

-

Tylos yawned as he sat down at his post. He and two other guards were meant to guard the armoury for reasons unknown. Usually there would be only two guards, but since Link came Impa ordered for the number to be knocked up again.

Pulling out the sheet of paper, he looked at his poem, wondering how he could add on to it. Most of the other soldiers thought him weird, but the heavens gave it as his answer, and who is he to deny the call of Nayru?

Footsteps were heard, and he raised his head from his poem. Peculiar, since the next shift was meant to come in another hour. Yawning, it didn't really matter if the next three were willing to work for an extra hour: that'll give him another hour of sleep.

Those footsteps weren't those of the next round. His two companions found that out the hard way, when a black sword plunged deep through their armour and coming out the other sides. Startled he jumped to his feet, frightened at the three people – no, monsters – smirking at him.

"Good evening, good man," The giant with red hair said acidly, his glare not weakened by only having one eye, "it's a pleasant day to be alive, isn't it?" The two Dark Knights slowly stalked closer to Tylos, pushing him back.

"Wh- what do you want?" He stuttered out, waving his spear defensively against the black creatures approaching. It was a mistake, as with incredibly speed a sword flung out and sheared off his blade.

The demon ignored his question. "It's also a good day to be dead." He pulled out his thin sword, and all Tylos' training could tell him was that the weapon was meant for assassination than all out battle.

Stumbling back, the two Dark Copies shifted their positions, herding him into a corner. Eyes darting around, he searched for a weapon, anything to protect himself with!

There: behind him, Link's weapon. Link told him to never touch it, but it was either that or die.

As his fingers curled around the grip, Shakaku smirked as it pulsed with dark energy.

"Unleash hell." He commanded, before fading away in a twirl of wind and water.

-

That night Malik dreamed. It was a twirl of thoughts, harsh and bitter an encirclement of the minds of others.

_"I hate you. I hate you. I HATE YOU!"_

_"Grab the knife, go on. Take it, strike it as hard as you can in his flesh. Rip him to bits."_

_"Her blood filled my hands, and you know what? I loved it."_

_"I won. Ha, ha, I won. He lost, and lost everything. His house, his money, his life. He lost everything, and I won everything. I WON!"_

_"It was mine. She took it. It was mine. It is mine. She stole it. IT IS MINE!"_

_"Blood fills the Field, and for three years all grass was fed with blood, not water. The damned Sheikah won't give up. So I'll make them surrender. I'll kill their children, their wives. I'll burn their homes, their men. I'll come out of this alive. I'll come out of this the victor."_

Malik surged up, sweat clinging tight to his body, the nightmare proving too much. As his senses realigned themselves to the waking world, he could see the glow of torches passing by and the siren of alarm.

The first time he heard that sound was when the two Dark Angels attacked. As he got to his feet and grabbed his bandoleer of knives, the hallways were filled with soldiers running, all heading for the armoury.

Running to awaken Link and Reza was pointless, them already awake from the noise, but as the group gathered they headed off to the armoury, hoping that whatever the sword Feral had done, it would be reversible damage.

-

Shakaku listened to the sounds generated in the Palace, audible even from his distance in Castletown. People were getting out of their homes, gazing in confusion at the ruckus at the Palace for all the lights to be on and soldiers swarming everywhere. It wouldn't take long for them to find the two decapitated soldiers.

As he approached the Temple of Time, he glanced uncaringly at the Truth stones next to it. Recorders of history, those three would track his presence, and the chaos he would spread would never be forgotten. Picking up a stone, he threw it at one of the glass windows; sending spider cracks from point of impact.

It didn't take long before a priest garbed hurriedly scrambled out. Shakaku, his hood up and cloaked in shadow looked like the messenger of Death, but that did not deter the priest in admonishing him.

"This is a place of religion! What you are doing is sacrilege! Repent, you rascal, apologise to the great Goddesses above! What are you doing this for anyway?" The priest yelled, his face going red from the effort. Shakaku tossed a stone up and down in his hand, a smirk visible past the veil of shadow cast by his hood. As an insult he threw it, this one shattering the window, sending shards of glass splintering against the marble floors.

"What on earth are you doing?" The priest yelled, walking forward to condemn the stranger. As he picked up another rock, the priest reached his hands out, holding back the arm. It wasn't much of a struggle, a man devoted to prayer against a man devoted to death, but religion and zeal propelled the holy man's muscles to put up a fight. "The Goddesses would be most angry with you! You'll always be a tarnish even in the heart of light-hearted Din!"

The demon kicked the priest off, the man stumbling to the ground with a quiet thump. "Let's just say I'm not a man of your faith. Let's just say I'm not a man at all." He lowered his hood, revealing razor sharp canines, glowing eyes and blood red hair, his magic making an aura of dominance surrounding him. The priest screamed as visions of hell were cast into his mind, fruitlessly scrabbling back to get away from the demon.

Shakaku looked at the rock almost affectionately before returning his evil glare at the priest. "This rock's not meant for your precious church. I specially reserved this rock for something else: you."

With a sickening crunch followed by a soft thump, another life was extinguished that night.

-

Black magic arced in the air as Tylos, possessed by the sword, struck down each of his fellow guards one by one. The sword glowed a nasty purple before radiating out a wave of dark energy, armour buckling beneath the blast as the nearest guards crumpled to the ground. Needless to say, by the time Link got to the scene many people were dead or injured.

"By all that is holy," Link swore, "not this again! Damned sword." He carefully manoeuvred around Tylos, trying to keep out of his attention.

Reza spun her two scimitars, readying herself for battle. "Looks like we're going to have to take him down." A hand on her shoulder prevented her charge, leading to the shoulder of a worried Malik.

"You can't just kill him, he's our friend!" He protested, pointing to Tylos who was now surrounded by a defensive circle of spears. Not that it helped, since with speed granted from Feral he weaved around the spears, shattering the shafts and plunging his sword deep into a man's neck. "He's just possessed by that sword, we just have to remove it from him!"

Link frowned at that. "We're going to find that a bit of a problem, then. My last tactic involved killing the Stalchid, and I can't do that this time. I'm not so sure my light magic is strong enough."

"Not yours, maybe," Impa said, appearing suddenly behind them, "but maybe Zelda's yes. Perhaps if you are able to divert his attention and keep it until she can arrive and cast a strong enough spell, you might have a chance at saving him." They weren't given a chance to say no, for with a whistle Impa called the guards away, leaving Link and the rest to hold Tylos off.

Navi fluttered hesitantly around Tylos, the dark energies of the sword repelling her. "Damn, all this feral magic is like a disease, his mind and body has been poisoned badly. Zelda better come quick."

Link frowned, wondering whether the poison was similar to those of the Dark Copies. Pulling out his bow he called for his mana to wrap around the arrowhead. "Here goes distraction one," he muttered before releasing the light arrow.

It was easy to see that the sword Feral didn't like it, although it didn't do much damage. Tylos staggered back, the purple aura weaved around him disrupted and trying to mend itself. Malik tried to disarm Tylos at that point, striking forward and attempting to hook the sword with his knives. With unnatural strength he was pushed away, flung into the surprised line of guards further back.

Zelda arrived then, a robe covering her nightdress. Quickly informed by Impa she started chanting, creating a new tapestry of magic, a blanket that would wrap around Tylos and suffocate the dark magic into returning into the sword.

"Mission one," Reza muttered, watching as Navi released miniature bolts of light at Tylos, "give Zelda some time. Mission two, keep Zelda alive." As Tylos suddenly lunged at her, she was forced to block and dodge out of the way, managing to knock his helmet off with the edge of her scimitar. "Mission three, keep ourselves alive. And damn it, mission four, keep him alive."

It was a hard fight, Malik acting as a guard for Link, keeping Tylos far enough so that Link could keep shooting his light arrows. Reza acted as a distraction, making sure that the possessed soldier's attention was well away from Zelda. The arrows bounced harmlessly against the aura, but the small amount of light magic worked as well against him as against Ganon, stunning him for a few precious seconds.

As Zelda's spell reached to a close, the sword Feral sensed it and despite Reza's attempts Tylos charged straight for her, like an animal in his overwhelming one tracked mind and determination. Without any better idea, Link lunged forward, holding him in a locking grip.

His scream tore the night as the dark aura tried to sweep over him, charring his skin where he couldn't protect it. Determined not to lose he forced out an aura of light of his own, locking both energies in a fluctuating twist.

Seconds like hours as his mana was drained at an incredible rate, Zelda released the web of light energy, extinguishing the black aura. Without the source, by the web and Link's aura, the sword dropped to the ground accompanied by Tylos, remaining feral magic nullified.

Link groaned as he looked at the green burns on his arm. "I'm not doing that again." He briefly recollected falling unconscious often, but with energy spent decided to do so anyway.

-

The city was in an uproar, entrance guards found dead along with the main priest of the Temple. Glass shattered and Palace infiltrated, it was the perfect environment needed for rumours to start and develop. By the time the afternoon sun rolled up high, there were theories on assassination attempts to worried fears of a whole new war.

Tylos' explanation worried Link, for the red hair and gigantic stature (plus Dark Copies) only meant that Shakaku was out there creating trouble. The Royal Family tried their best to set things back into pace, but it was agreed to delay the tournament by a week to allow for extra safety measures.

Sighing, Link surveyed the worried denizens of Castletown on his perch on a roof. Navi landed on his shoulder, a melancholy look on her face.

"Things are definitely not good," she started, scuffing her feet against his shirt, "I'm just wondering what's going on in the bigger picture. Nasty evil sword, another attack against the Royal Palace, what is it leading up to?"

Link shrugged. "I know it's a bad thing, but I try not to think about that stuff. Might as well do things a step at a time. I was just thinking on something else."

"Oh?"

"Like you did against the large Stalchid, maximum effect with the minimum requirements. Overpowering the enemy in sheer mana did, looking back, most of my work, or by creating a few tricks as I go. I'm just wondering whether there's a more efficient way to use mana – Heavens knows that I burn it out too often."

"There should be, might take a bit of training, but there should be."

Link nodded, silently gazing at the sky. He could almost imagine, painted in fire and blazing across the night sky the message 'Shakaku was here'. With so much havoc within Castletown, tournament or no he believed that they would be staying slightly longer if to help keep the peace, if nothing else.

-

A/N: There, done. Hopefully I drilled into the minds of my readers that the sword's not really a thing to be messed with, and that Shakaku is an evil, despicable cruel man. Yes, despise him, hate him, and curse him to the bowels of hell. Pointless, since he's imaginary and came from hell anyway, but you get the picture.

Ah well, for those of you who care a story called Saria's Last Song has been published under my name. Please feel free to enjoy its contents, enjoyable they are or not, and I thank all those that reviewed.

Mid term here. Mid term ending. Mid term homework here. Mid term homework not finished. Crap.


	24. Web of Strings

A/N: Sorry for the late update. I've been playing Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap and I really enjoy it. Great graphics, great story and great idea to replace guardian fairy with a cap (although I would prefer Navi anyday). Just wondering why Nintendo shared the glory with Capcom…

Chapter 23: Web of Strings

"Reza, I challenge you!" Malik cried out, pointing at Reza from his perch on top of a building. Thunder rumbled in the background, the lightning giving him an intimidating glow.

Reza flicked her eyes to the children playing with the torches and weighted balls behind him, rolling her eyes to his theatrical entrance. "Not your stupid card game again." She groaned, watching him jump down with an acrobatic leap right in front of her. With a small flick before he regained his balance he toppled to his backside, startled.

"That's not nice," he pouted, rubbing his sore rear before perking up, "no, not that. Can't win with materialistic items against a Gerudo. No, I challenge you to a duel of words!"

She smirked at that. "Aw, poor little baby is replacing his rattle for a rattlesnake? Bring it on, kiddo." She said condescendingly. She shifted from her crossed legged position so that she was looking at him face to face.

Briefly glancing through a dictionary he shook his head. "Har, har, but that's not what I meant. We'll each take turns to ask each other what a word means, and if you can't tell what the word means accurately you lose." Rubbing his hands in anticipation he chucked the dictionary at some poor sap standing behind him.

Her smirk never faded. "Your call. Let's say that the loser has to be a slave for the day. You ready?"

"Not so fast," he replied, "we got to set some rules, and otherwise you'll be sneaky enough to slither through most words. You can't use the word in its explanation, and you can't use its opposite to explain it. Now, what does the word inundate mean?"

"To flood, overwhelm, engulf, I could give you a whole list." Reza replied breezily. "Explain the term tangential."

Malik paused for a moment, his mind reading like a computer as he catalogued and sorted the information he sifted from the dictionary. "To go off on another idea, for example to start of speaking about medicine and then breaking into a conversation on teacups. What's redundant?"

"To have an excessive amount or object that's unneeded and accomplishing nothing." She yawned. "What does the number seven mean?"

Malik sputtered at that. "What the? What do you mean by what the number seven means? It means itself!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Your rules: can't use the word to explain itself. So, what does the number seven mean?"

"That's unfair!" he whined, swinging his arms around frantically. "There is no other meaning that itself!"

Reza shrugged. "Grab me an apple, slave, and dance with it balanced on your nose when you return, squeaking like a pig."

-

It was amazing how the mind was built to adapt to ever changing situations. Without a sword for the time being, Link was experimenting and training in unarmed combat. Flips, jumps and dodges he was attuned to since you did that anyway with a sword, but blocking and attacking was a different thing.

Navi floated above a punching bag, counting how many punches and kicks he could dish out before he tired. Since he wasn't wearing any of his heavy equipment, already one hundred and thirty and still going strong.

"I don't really think you're going to improve this way," she commented, wincing as he delivered a powerful spin-kick that sent the bag reeling – no one would want to be on the receiving end of that – and floated back down as he winded down, "all you're doing is building up endurance, and you already have a heck a lot of that."

Link nodded, agreeing to her wisdom. "True, but what else do you suggest?"

Fairy training was a very, putting it frankly, _boring_ training. So boring that for some it was more relaxing than sleeping, and more tiring than casting magic for others. Drilled with information you would only need if you wanted to navigate blindfolded through soil, but drilled with such a matter you could never forget it. As boring as most of it is, some of it was very useful, and now Navi was appreciating learning it.

"Well, for starters, if you build a Hylian shaped target, I could draw out the areas that would be more susceptible to damage, and with a bit of ingenuity you can learn unarmed combat that way."

Building a target was unnecessary – with the palace nearby, a target could be fetched from the soldier training halls. There other types of targets as well: Goron, Zora, Wolfos, Moblin, Stalfos, you name it and it would most likely have been there. Navi was delighted with so many arrays to show her knowledge upon, and dragging them all out into the open space was already training it itself.

With a paintbrush Navi drew on each of the targets circles of varying diameters arrows pointing in different directions to show points of attack that will inflict the most damage.

"Now, against a Stalfos," she said idly, impressed at the life size wooden construct, "with your bare fists I suggest you run, especially if it got a shield and a sword. If it has a bow or spear, maybe you'd have a chance. The best areas are the small regions in between each rib near its armpits; with a good amount of force you should be able to dislodge on or two with your fingers. Otherwise, attack all visible joints, particularly the neck." She dipped the brush in red paint to draw out the critical areas.

Link just stared at her. "Where on earth do you get all that information?"

"Training, but also from experience. I wasn't idle when I was away, you know."

-

After being made a complete fool, Malik challenged Reza again. "Another time! My freedom pitted against slavery for two days!" Reza sighed at him. Doesn't learn fast, does he?

"Fine, fine… Slave, I order you to lose. That's another day of grovelling for you."

"HEY!"

-

Admittedly, Navi's idea did have some amazing effects. Just half an hour pounding away at the constructs he learnt how to do hooks, haymakers, stomps, knee drops, elbow slams, knee slams, knee hooks, elbow hooks and chops and thrusts. His hands were blistering red from scraping against wood, but Navi still believed he didn't do enough.

"Great, now you can tackle all these creatures and people – if they're unarmed. Now, what we need is an armed guy to chuck you against. Where's Tylos when you need him?" She wondered, drifting off to find said person.

Grumbling Link walked off to bandage his sore hands. "Slave driver," he complained to himself, gingerly flexing his fingers to let the blood circulate. His hands stung, his wrists ached, his shoulders burned and his legs were numb. Disappointed at Tylos' agreement to follow Navi, he didn't really fancy his chances against a spear in his state.

"Cheer up Link," Tylos soothed, "I won't aim at any vital organs, and you did beat me when that sword was possessing me."

"So speaking Zelda defeated you, and I could die from bleeding instead." Link said sourly, deciding to just dodge until Tylos tires.

"Link, I better see you actually engage in some fighting otherwise I'll grab another guard for you to fight." Navi warned, smirking slightly at his unhappy expression. "Look on the bright side, you've lived through all the death situations placed before you, and necessity is the mother of all inventions. You either improve or die." She paused to consider her words. "Rather, get better or get bettered."

Tylos gave an apologetic smile before readying his spear. From a quick analysis Link could see that he should be expecting a straightforward thrust attack. As expected all Link had to do was jump over the incoming tip, landing on the shaft and delivering a light kick to Tylos' breastplate.

It didn't accomplish much against armour and being heavier with all his protective gear Tylos wasn't going to topple, and belatedly Link realised his mistake. That time was enough for Tylos to lower his spear and let Link slide off, readying himself to flick it up once there was no weight on top.

Reading enemy movements was a speciality of Link, and watching where Tylos was looking and the tensing of his muscles told enough of a story of what he was intending to happen. Quickly he snaked his hand out, grabbing Tylos' ear to stop him from falling. It didn't work as planned, but it worked anyway.

"_Ouchouchouchletgoletgo_!" He yelled, dropping his spear to wrap his arms around Link's, delicately removing Link's fingers from his ear.

"I guess that counts as a victory for me then," Link said relieved, kicking up the spear and grabbing it, "he's now unarmed."

Navi pouted before nodding. "I was hoping for more panache, a battle that would go down history, not the child defeating technique of pinching ears." Sighing she flew to Link's shoulder, congratulating him and thanking Tylos. Muttering about wearing his helmet at all times, he bowed before departing.

"Hey, there are tournaments coming up, right?" Navi said suddenly as they walked back to Castletown to fetch Reza and Malik.

"Yeah, meant for Hylians and all. Why?"

"You can practice your unarmed fighting there, and win lots of money while you're at it. One hundred and fifty thousand, right? No more dice cheating for you and misuse of powers."

"Hey," Link said, mildly offended, "I only cheated with the dice because I was travelling back in time anyway. I wouldn't do that again unless I'm stuck in another loop to save the world. Besides, travelling back in time resets everything: everyone forgets you, and everything is pretty much lost."

"Yeah, yeah. So how about it?"

"I guess so, but you have to remember that there are various sections: horseback, unarmed, swordsmanship and spear-fighting. Three out of four isn't good enough to win if someone else wins all four."

Navi shrugged. "Who cares? It's in another two weeks you'll have time to practice. Spears are for wimps anyway, I'm sure that gets less points."

Link smiled slightly at that logic. Admittedly, it all depended on the circumstances because on horseback a man with a spear or lance will easily overpower a fool with a sword. All about range and stuff.

"Well, there should be a few miniature battle rings around Castletown, I could – what's going on?" He asked perplexed as Malik was dragging a cart where Reza was relaxing on top.

"I hate Gerudos." Malik grumbled, pushing as hard as he could to get the wooden wheels to roll. "I can see why the entire Sheikah race dislikes them too."

Reza waved a paper fan, sitting on her throne of apples – all collected and cleaned by Malik. "Whether you hate me or like me, you're moving too slow, slave." She grabbed an apple, examining it for dirt before taking an exaggerated bite from it, the noise grating on his ears.

"So," Link said slowly, "back to my first question: what's going on?"

"Blue boy here challenged me to a game of words, and I won." Reza answered cheerily. "Oh yeah! Hey slave, afterwards I want you to wear pink clothing instead." Ignoring his whimpers she smiled brilliantly at Link. "Ah, this is the life."

"Enjoy it, but don't become lazy." Navi said. "Oh yeah! Reza, do you know any boxing rings and stuff like that here?"

"Sorry, nope, but I can find them easily." Any other reply she might have given was cut off by the booming voice of a man who advantageously took her cart as his own podium.

"Fool, cretins and criminals!" The portly man bellowed, raising his hands to the sky to gain attention. "The Judgement has come, and all have been found wanting! We have sinned to such an extent that the Goddesses have abandoned us! Repent, mortals, and beg for their forgiveness! Repent!"

Rather than inspire the audience to kowtow and pray, it had the unfortunate effect of people walking off and calling him a crackpot. Nonetheless, his voice never faltered as he delivered his doctrine, in hopes at least one person would listen.

"Wow," Navi muttered, "Shakaku really did his stuff well. Damaged their religious leader, damaged their monarchy and damaged their defence: he's really breeding a new type of people. But guys, do you think the Goddesses have abandoned us though?"

Malik contemplated the answer, although his mind was fogged up by exhaustion. "Whether or not they forsaken us, they definitely ditched me. The patron deity for the Gerudos just loves torturing me, I bet." He complained miserably, glaring at Reza.

Link chuckled at him. "That's one way to say 'life stinks'." He said, "But to your question Navi, I don't think so. They wouldn't bother creating a Hero of Time unless they wanted their country protected, right? And they wouldn't protect their country if they forgot that it existed." He wondered whether he told anyone about his conversations with Farore, but just in case he didn't he excluded that part.

"This city has the stench of a demon, I tell you! Hell has invaded, and where are the forces of heaven?" The man spoke out, his moustache bristling with zeal, "No where, I tell you! We are relinquished, handed uncaringly into the cradle of Hell! Repent, fools, repent and beg!"

Link frowned. Whether that man was a crackpot or not, the 'demon stench' couldn't have been a guess, for it was quite a wild one. Perhaps there were others that weren't Sages that were attuned to the flow of magic…

"Anyway," Reza said, putting her hands on Link and Malik's shoulders and steering them away, "if there aren't any fighting rings it's very easy to make them. Just allow betting, place two or three fighters inside and the rest will pool in so fast you won't be able to count. Oh yeah, later Malik go get the cart back, will you?"

-

With the all the guards aware of the danger posed by the sword Feral, now it was in an isolated room which required light magic to open, otherwise you'd have to find a way to drill through two metres of enchanted steel. Guards posted at each corner, all holding a talisman that would tell them of strong dark magic use from two hundred metres away, Link felt that he could afford to leave it alone for a while. After all, only Zelda would be able to crack open the lock, and she was strong enough to deflect any demon influence attempted on her.

He was now on a patrol job of his own around Castletown while Reza went off to make her own betting pool and battle arena, Malik trying to persuade the man to get off the cart. He frowned slightly at the view of the damaged church, pitying the poor priest who died and those other guards at the entrance. He didn't know what was Shakaku's game, but to toy with lives so easily – he would not go unpunished.

The entry into Castletown was now so tight it was in a chokehold, some merchants not able to enter at all due to lack of identifiable proof. Now, only 'legal' trade dealers were allowed to enter, although they were mainly workers of LonLon ranch.

There was almost a desperate sense in the way everyone was going around their work, not unlike after Ganondorf attacked and left in pursuit of Zelda. The laughter strained, the silence unnerved, the chatter burdened. The little children, unaware, continued to play their card games, but it looked like a frail grasp of the joy before, for at some subconscious level they understood what was going on better than the adults.

As he walked around the alleys and sidewalks of Castletown, it was clear that security was tightened. At every corner three guards would stand, all armed with the customary spear and a new addition: the whistle. In fact every now and then Link would see the nearly indistinct notch on a guard's helmet and gauntlets that indicated him as one of the King's Guard.

"People are really worried, eh?" Navi commented quietly as they passed through one of the longer lanes. Instead of the welcoming air you received by the open doors to strangers, they were now locked, the bolts and chains hinting at a nervous wariness. "I don't think you'll find many sparring partners for a while."

Link nodded in agreement, a nostalgic look on his face as he passed what was once the Happy Mask shop. The days when disagreeing trade unions and security forces were the major problems… "True, although there might be a few enthusiasts that managed to get in before the intense security. The tournament's still weeks away besides."

"Hmm, looks like you'll still be working on wooden targets. Eventually, I think you need to upgrade to stone targets." Link grimaced at the thought, looking at his bandaged hands.

The guards saluted him as he passed them, him waving back in turn. Somehow he didn't find the idea of a wall of guards lining buildings that far off if times would still stay as troubling. As he finished his tour he grabbed a pen and paper, writing a quick report before handing it to a nearby guard. The guard smirked at his handwriting, really scrawls since he used a brick wall as his table.

"Let's go see how well Reza is doing with her battle ring." Navi said, subtly steering Link right towards the almost bottled sensation of excitement, relief and disappointment that could be felt radiating off in a house basement.

When Link entered, it wasn't really a battle ring. The circle had been drawn for people to pound away at in, yes, but that wasn't what everyone was doing. Rather, being as enterprising as ever, while Link was away Reza set up the dice game with all the present fighters, and like all rules of the casino, the house wins. Already it was clear her stack of rupees was at least more than the next six highest put together.

"Ah, good to see you here," Reza said after a quick 'game's over folks', scooping up her easy-earned winnings of five hundred more rupees. "Now that the star of the attraction is here, we can get some boxing done! Who's the first contestant?"

It was clear that her way of delivering speech created the intended intimidation aura, a few cautious about fighting Link. Sure, he looked like a kid, but big things came in small packages, and this kid was rumoured to be able to fight dark flying creatures. But what the heck, it's boxing and he's a sword fighter...

"I'll go then," one man stepped forward, dropping a massive scabbard that held an equally massive broadsword, and with a loud thud it landed on the ground. Reza frowned slightly at the indent it made on the wooden boards; she'll have to add that to the rent.

"Rules are simple: first person to land backside first on the ground or exit the ring loses. Winner stays on and final winner gets a 40 share of bets." Reza said factually, reading off a script. She pulled out a small bell before hunting for the hammer to hit it with.

Link smirked at the towering figure; all muscle but no speed. Without his sword, the limitations of his attacks would be a few simple kicks if lucky, otherwise just grapples and tossed fists.

Deciding to take on Navi's advice, he took the cocky attitude, giving an infuriating smirk to his opponent. "Start dancing to my claps, tiny."

Ignoring the small chime to start the fight, the large man charged straight at Link, trying to grab Link in his suffocating grip. Being as slippery as ever, he twirled around the man's bulk, delivering painful but harmless attacks here and there and tossing his insults all the while.

"My, my. You're just as strong as a gorilla, I give you that, and just as hairy." Link said superciliously, proving his point by ripping out a few hairs from the man's arm. With a howl the he stared murderously at Link, gripping his hand in pain.

"Listen you upstart," He growled, "if you really want me to take the kid gloves off, then fine."

Link smirked back in his maddening way. Damn, wasn't insulting people fun! "You really want to take them off, and damage your carefully manicured nails?" A few nearby men chuckled at that retort. "What are you going to do? Poison me with nail polish?"

Embittered by the laughs at him, the man lunged at Link, this time aiming at his throat. His balance however was built for a heavy sword in his hands, and so he didn't move very fast. Link deftly hopped over the swinging arms, delivering a smarting kick to the man's forehead.

"Whoever raised a brat like you deserves a beating." The man snarled. "Your mother really needs some child tips."

Link shrugged indifferently, jumping by and flicking the man's ear. "Didn't really know my mother."

"Oh?" The man shot back, picking up at this weak point, "did she choose to dispose of you at the first opportunity, or you're the product of her unfaithfulness and your father kicked you out?"

That struck a nerve with Link. His face digging into a familiar frown, he narrowed his eyes at the man and shifted into a proper fighting stance. "I'd like to say everyone who says that gets their heads caved in," he said tonelessly, voice sharp and lethal, "but you'll be the first."

It didn't take long for his overwhelming speed and experience to outgun his larger foe; his hands striking in newly learnt pressure points all over the man's body. Meant to deliver as much excruciating pain as possible, the older man fainted after the first four successive blows, but that didn't stop Link from grinding him to pulp.

With a final kick the man soared out of the ring, his face a purple mess. "Next," Link said neutrally, "and we'll make this a silent battle."

Reza finished drawing up a chart, referring to it before ushering a startled man onto the ring. Surprised, he didn't notice that she handily removed all possible weaponry from him and took his wallet. This man looked more like a street brawler than a real fighter, but that meant he probably had more hand-to-hand experience than the first.

Nodding to each other they started circling one another once the bell rang, Link appreciating the other guy's defensive posture. Good as it gave him a clear view of any incoming attack and the appropriate position to block it, but ineffective and blocking a follow up. With blinding speed Link charged in, giving a rabbit punch to the stomach that was easily blocked (albeit a grunt of pain) and following it up with a devastating kick to the groin.

As the man squeaked and tumbled out of the ring, Link's response to their horrified looks was, "I'm in a bad mood. Blame it on the first guy."

The challengers flew by one after the other, Link's foul temper and his lethal strikes dealing with them quickly and efficiently. As men entered the circle with trepidation and exited in pain, Reza's fortune of betting grew larger and larger.

Link's final opponent was a fairly young man, peculiarly dressed in loose sleeves and baggy trousers. An unshaven face smirked at Link, whose disposition slowly stopped clouding up and wasn't going to punish him for his impudence. Rather, as a warm down, like the first man he'll toy with this guy, but without speaking.

The only difference between this man and everyone else was that his speed surpassed Link's. Fist flew out at such speeds Link could not see them, kicks darting in and Link registering pain before sight. For the first time pushed seriously on the defensive, Link was relying on his weary hands to block any incoming attacks.

Reza was surprised herself, as was Navi who sat on her shoulder. If combat readiness equated size, Link would have been a giant, but this man might be a mountain. Eyes darting in concentration, they tried to follow each blinding attack, wincing as Link barely managed to block them in time.

Link knew he shouldn't be using mana at all, but given the circumstances decided to leak a bit just to dull the pains and speed up his healing. Almost immediately he realised that his opponent was using mana himself, fuelling his punches with an incredibly dense explosion of magic igniting at the end of his fists just before impact.

Frowning deeper Link circled around to get a bit more space, channelling mana into improve awareness. If that man was able to keep giving such large blasts of mana for all the time, he had to have more mana that Vovalgia himself. Possible, but highly unlikely. He must be having some sort of battery somewhere…

There! Just in time Link dodged out of an attack, and with his magic senses realised what the 'battery' was – the man was using his mana to store weaponry, for that was no mana explosion but a charged weapon!

Frowning Link couldn't see an immediate answer to his problems. As he dodged more of the man's kicks and punches, the larger the man's smirk grew. Suddenly he darted forward, and Link could just discern a knife formulate right in his hands, and before Link could dodge it properly he received a light gash to his chest, shirt splitting at the contact and the threads singed from the mana that passed by.

Sighing, Link chose the safest choice. He couldn't prove the other man of using weapons if the guy kept storing them just as quickly as he pulled them out, and no way was he fast enough to catch one of them as they came. Nodding in defeat to the guy, he stepped out of the ring.

"Nice try kid," the man said, "but it takes a bit more to defeat Ross Redsgain. Better luck next time, eh?" Link nodded silently, accepting the offered handshake before walking off to get some medication for the cut: he found wounds healed quicker the faster they were acted upon.

Glumly Reza gave the man his 40 cut, a whopping six hundred rupees. At least she still had nine hundred, but would have had a nice sum of fifteen hundred if Link won. Ah well, they weren't starved for money.

Her sentiments weren't shared by Navi, who was berating Link for giving up.

"You fool! You coward! Why'd you step out, dope? You saw it, I saw it, he was cheating, you know it and I know it! You should have won!" She yelled into his ear, spit flying out occasionally.

Carefully Link picked her up and placed her further from his now moist earlobes. "It's all about a challenge, see? If that happened in real life, I can't go complain about broken rules, for I'd be dead by then. Instead, I should adapt to them."

"Ha, I didn't see you adapt." Navi muttered unhappily, flying into his cap.

Link smiled slightly. "True, I didn't adapt fast enough. But I'll correct that soon."

-

To be frank his method of correcting was a strange one. After finding Malik (who had been organising a 'abolish slavery' campaign), he was getting Malik to toss Deku nuts at him as fast as possible and Link had to catch them before they went bang. For this exercise he prudently wore his skinning gloves, although they were now singed badly by the exercise.

"So," Malik questioned, his words interrupted periodically by the effort to throw the Deku nuts, "some guy managed to sneak in weapons into an unarmed combat fight, and this is how you're dealing with it?"

"Yep," Link replied, successfully plucking one out of the air without it reacting.

"I don't see how it works."

"You see, he disguised it through very fast speed – even faster than you. I figure that if I can stop his weapons, then I stand a safer chance of winning."

"Safer?"

"You see this rip in my shirt? It's because he managed to switch from a brass knuckle to a knife unexpectedly. Now if I could have intercepted that knife, I wouldn't have been scratched."

"Ah. But how's tossing Deku Nuts at you going to help? From this distance you can see me fling them, but when up fighting there's less time to respond."

"Good point Malik…"

-

Zelda now had a brief respite from her lessons, and was taking the free time to enjoy the sights and sounds of Castletown. Adorning a nondescript brown cloak and tying her hair into a bun, she could walk freely without being identified as the Princess.

"Speak with me, fellow members! Slavery is bad! Slavery is cruel! Abolish slavery!" She smiled at Malik's antics, the rousing voices following his speech as they marched boldly to where Reza was relaxing to demand for his freedom.

Well, she had nothing better to do, so might as well watch.

"I demand my freedom back in another word contest." Malik said confidently.

"If you're challenging me, that's another day of penance for you." She yawned back, nodding to Zelda's presence.

"Ah ha! And here's where your ingenuity fails!" Malik exclaimed triumphantly, pulling out a person from the mass of people standing behind him. "It is not I that is challenging you, but a newfound friend of mine! If you lose, I am free! If you win, then you have to challenge another member of S.L.A.B until you defeat all of us! And then, I'll serve you for a week!"

She raised her eyebrow at that. "Slab? You call yourselves a slab of meat?"

Malik frowned, clucking his tongue. "Tsk tsk, you of little imagination. Not, slab, but S.L.A.B! Slavery Liberation Association Body! There are eight of us, excluding me, and do you have enough brains to fight our combined strength?"

Zelda bowed apologetically to Reza, mouthing that she needed to be elsewhere. Reza apparently accepted her apology, waving her off before regarding Malik and his group. "Bring it on, and get me an apple while you're at it."

It was comforting to see so many patrolling guards around Castletown, especially with the havoc earlier in the week. With the Temple of Time damaged, no one dared to enter for worship in fear of angered spirits, pretty much leaving it up to Impa and the Royal Family to clean up the mess and appoint a new priest. She sighed at the memory of the night, for symbolisms behind the broken panes was the most saddening ever.

Having time to stop and think about what was going on was always suggested. It was expected that in ten years Zelda would have to take the mantle as Queen and rule Hyrule. While the prospect of such power was much wanted to many, the idea of ruling differing races and factions that were still suspicious of each other wasn't that comforting. And within two years ruling as Queen, she'll have to find a King to govern along…

Slapping herself lightly, she reprimanded herself that she came out to relax. Best not burden herself with such distant matters. She still had fifteen years to deal with it. She discreetly donated twenty rupees to the beggar, striding off before he could catch her face properly. Charity didn't require recognition, for knowing you did a good thing is all that matters.

Greeting passing pedestrians she sighed as her time was up. Walking past Reza showed that she skilfully managed to knock two out and was tackling the third. With a wave of goodbye she headed back to the Palace, off to resume her lectures on how a monarch should act and all that.

The scenery was always had a calming effect on her, the wide fields of green sprawling into the forests beyond and mountains above picturesque in nearly all aspects. Although dotted by the regular patrol guards, the beauty didn't suffer from it.

Before she entered the palace, she could hear some shouts and bangs near her courtyard. Curious and slightly wary, she slid out the knife that now always accompanied her before approaching. Her fears were unfounded, for it was just Link and Impa practicing… something.

"No pain, no gain." Impa admonished as Link jumped around clasping his blistered hands. "No gloves, no waiting."

"True enough, but by Din THIS HURTS!" Link yelled out, pointing to the pile of Deku Nuts and a barbecue set next to him. Belatedly realising Zelda was there, he waved to her, giving her a clear view of his raw singed palms.

"Good day, Link, Impa." She said after sheathing her thin knife. "May I ask what's going on?"

"It's some speed training," Link answered, dipping his hands in a nearby bucket of water that was already stained red. "Impa's going to drop Deku Nuts handfuls at a time into this fire, and I have to catch them before anyone of them goes pop. Once I master this difficulty, she's going to drop them buckets at a time."

Zelda stared, taking her time to answer. "Ah."

Impa shrugged. "He came up with the idea," she added, pointing her thumb towards Link, "I'm just helping him with his training. He's welcome to give up anytime he wishes."

"I'm not giving up," Link said, visibly relaxing as the water did its magic, "I'll eventually find the best way to do this. You see, when the deku nuts fall onto the grid there's a bit of time where the heat has to seep in before it goes bang. If I can move quickly enough, I can get them off the fire before they're well heated."

Zelda nodded, although unsure of his ideas. "So, where do you put the Deku Nuts once you plucked them out? Dropping them on the floor means they explode." She reasoned, gesturing the large bucket still unused. Link paused in thought.

"I'll figure that out once I manage to successfully pluck one out." He shrugged the question off by answer of his defeat. Zelda smiled before requesting her departure.

"Perhaps," Navi suggested as Link signalled to Impa that he was ready, "you should try pooling some mana into boosting up your speed. You can reduce the costs through experience from there."

-

"Definition of six." The fifth S.L.A.B member asked, smirking at Reza.

She yawned back at him. "Product of three and two. Now, what's the definition of zero?"

Quite obviously, the man was stumped. Sighing in defeat, he stepped back, the group rotating for her to meet the sixth challenger.

"Malik, I'm getting bored of this. As my slave, I order you to disband this group."

"You can't do that! It's nine against one! Our total vote is greater than yours alone!" Malik strongly disagreed.

She flicked her gaze to the five people who were soundly defeated. "Au contraire, it's really just four of you against me, since I seem to have proven my intellect above five of your members. In fact, it should be six on my side and four on yours. Correct, my five new friends?" Discreetly she unsheathed one of her scimitars, the light reflected just so that the defeated people could see it but no one else. Gulping, they nodded.

"Looks like its another week of servitude for you, blue boy. Now, I command you to grovel at my feet."

-

After three hours of intense agony and two hours of even worse pain, Link finally mastered it. Within five hours, he had managed to move fast enough that he could pluck two hundred Deku Nuts in a single second. Of course he felt drained and exhausted, but the burning sensation that remained in his hands kept him from napping.

"Congrats, Link," Navi said, a bit dull from listening to so many exploding Deku Nuts, "now what have you learnt today?"

"Have I burnt some hay?" Link confirmed, rubbing some earwax out of his ear.

"What? What do you mean by 'maths takes a day'?" Navi asked, her hearing equally impaired.

"Huh? What'd you say?" Link asked, this time stopping to put some more concentration into listening.

"… Don't know what you said, can't read lips…" Navi sighed. "This is going to take a while."

"You're going to fake the piles?"

-

The duty of a retainer is arduous and separates the strong from the weak. It takes intense concentration, a sense of patience beyond human capability and the determination needed to swim the seas. Mentally and physically exhausting, it is no wonder why Impa took an hour a day to relax.

Meditation was one of the best creations of mankind, in her opinion. The first step to reason is logic, and the second step is to meditate. Sorting new information and cataloguing it into appropriate sectors, it freed up the mind from worries and stress, leaving a blank space of relaxation. An hour with a clear mind is equal to three hours of good sleep.

Also, since meditation is done in quiet, it allowed her to squash that ringing sensation in her ears.

Curse Link and his ideas. The Triforce was smart to divide itself such, for it is a courageous act to willingly put your hands into fire, but not very wise.

Her idea of meditation is to first pass a cycle of complex mathematical shapes through her mind, 'feeling' the angles and curves and giving a total appreciation of the complex structure. Once mind and thought become one complete being, can the procedure of reflection and ultimately respite can start.

Reflecting back, it was amazing what the determination of youth could do. From what she heard from Navi and her own memories, at the age of 10, without any real combat training and practically alone until Navi came, Link was bold enough to enter the Great Deku Tree and attempt to clear what's wrong with his guardian through a mean all the Kokiri were unused to: violence.

Zelda, on the whim and suspicion of a dream, was willing to take fate into her own hands and mould Hyrule into a cast of peace.

Link, to walk straight into an active volcano where grown men would have quaked at the temperatures and defeat an entire race of Dodongos that threatened the Gorons.

Zelda, to stand up against a man who was superior in might of magic and strength of arms, and take the dangerous risk of passing a powerful heirloom to a boy who she only knew barely, even with the risk that someone else might find it instead.

Link, despite the hardships of his journeys still possessing the good will to cure the suffering of others against his own safety and sadness, helping Talon return and spark Malon's happiness anew.

Zelda, who gave herself mind and spirit to the study of magic, just under the intense hope that someday, it will be enough to defeat Ganondorf. To train at a level close to self-destruction with the purpose to be able to help Link just at the right moment.

A kid without a fairy, and a girl whose beginning life was sealed in a palace of protection: it's amazing what destiny can do to people. Simple beginnings resulting in complicated ends, with so many circumstances where things could have gone wrong. They braved through all of it, and managed to come out triumphant.

Ah, the wonders of youth… Not that her own childhood was without colour, but…

Impa decided to give up on the meditation idea. Best not dip into pasts intolerable. Propping up to her feet, she quietly she muttered an oath.

"Damn you to hell, father. Burn in everlasting torment, mother."

-

Once the idea was sparked, fighting rings were now commonplace in Castletown. Just two days after Reza's version, there were now public shows where you had to pay five rupees for entrance just to watch two people slug it out and bet on who would fall down last.

Link had nothing against such public acts of violence – after all, once you've caved in a ReDead skull with your sword there's little along the lines of blood and gore that's more disturbing – but the thought of so many little kids being fed such atrocities…

… Then again, he killed his first grisly monster at the age of ten, and look how he turned out: Hero of Time…

Ah well, guards were posted nearly everywhere and they seemed to be circling around the ring anyway. Should anything get too grisly they should be able to deal with it.

It was amazing what his body did to adapt. Since his arms could move at near a third the speed of sound, the rest of his body seemed to try and keep up, and now he could run roughly twice as fast as before. Heck, if he kept at that level of improvement, by the end of the week he'll be able to outrun Epona.

Crime was a common thing, wherever you went. Rogue Gerudos, Sheikahs gone treacherous and general theft that sometimes resulted in murder of either the thief or the victim – crimes to such level that the country was bathed in sin. However, there were things like charity, organisations for the betterment of the people that existed, and general kindness hasn't died out yet. When Link went to the general store to find some red medicine for his hands, the man was kind enough to give him another bottle's worth for free. He still kept his hands bandaged to prevent the tearing of the skin, but now at least it didn't hurt when he held stuff.

A loud cheer suddenly erupted right behind him, and twirling around it was just the success of some wrestler after an evenly matched fight. People were rejoicing their newfound cash, others disappointed. Little children ran up to the ring to give the sweaty man a hug or ask for an autograph, all in all creating a deformed picture of social bliss.

Link walked off to a newspaper stand, handing over three rupees before taking a copy for himself, slowly walking towards a bench to review the information. Muttering lightly at the first page, he wondered why people were so interested in bad news elsewhere when not too long ago a demon toyed with a few lives right here. Perhaps they were trying to ignore the fears over here by concentrating on the problems of other people.

Flipping the newspapers revealed more mundane facts and opinions, like speculation where LonLon Ranch got its newfound wealth to gossip why Talon decided to store it instead of buy new cows of more feed. Some people had the right idea that Malon received the amount, but their ideas of how were ludicrous and as far from the truth as possible. After all, who would believe that a Gerudo – known to be a thief – gave such a dizzying sum as a gift?

Speaking of which, Reza and Malon seemed to be getting along quite well, and Link's fear that Reza wouldn't respect a lady who couldn't fight and so unsure about her future was unfounded. Maybe eventually Reza will teach Malon a fighting trick or two.

Reza in the meantime was stuck in an arm wrestling contest against a burly man, and unsurprisingly the man was struggling to keep the deadlock up.

"I swing around ten kilogram scimitars almost on a daily basis," Reza boasted, her grip tightening painfully on the man's hand, "what can you do?"

The man's answer was a scream of pain as she started increasing the pressure, his muscles straining to the limit to keep still. Eventually it was too much for him, and his arm buckled limply under the sheer force. Of course, one of Newton's laws says that a resultant force will result in acceleration, and with a mighty bang his hand crashed onto the wooden table painfully.

"Ooh, that's not good," she said sympathetically as the pattern of the table top was now moulded onto his reddened skin, "but you owe me fifty rupees. Now pay up."

As Link looked back to the wrestling ring, it seemed Reza released her leash on Malik as he was now competing – although it was on the terms that all profit goes to her. Small, lithe and blue haired he looked a bit outmatched by the hairy, gigantic and over-muscled monster of a man against him.

Malik however had one trick up his sleeve. As the man charged around, he would dart back and forth, confusing the larger guy and sending his inertia against him. He also made use of an attack known for its ferocity and daringness, an attack many feared and didn't risk attempting: the head butt.

Normally you would associate the head butt with a larger man driving his skull into some poor sap's cranium like how a hammer will be used against a nail, but for Malik it was more like bashing the nail right into the surface, each blow creating seriously splitting headaches. With each devastating attack Malik will edge the man closer to the lines drawn, and after four bashes that would result in a concussion for the big man he finally was tripped outside, Malik being proclaimed the winner.

"Hey Link," Navi asked idly, "How're your hands? Do you think you could give a few punches with those right now?"

"I guess so, but I'm not so confident about it. Why?"

"The cheating guy is going against Malik." True enough, Ross Redsgain strode arrogantly into the ring, smirking at Malik's stature compared to him.

Link frowned, folding up his newspaper and slowly walking over to become one of the viewers. Malik didn't know what he was up against – after all, logic dictated anyone foolish enough to wear such cumbersome clothing is inexperienced – but to give him a fair chance, Link decided to just watch, and intervene when necessary.

As everyone finished circling around betting chances and pooling their money to the bookie in charge, Malik bowed to Ross before the bell rang. Ross himself couldn't spare the courtesy.

Before the chime even finished, both Malik and Ross charged at each other, both becoming streaks of blue and red that darted around the ring, bouncing of each other in devastating impacts.

Link was quite surprised at Malik's capability. Clearly he had been underestimating his friend's skills, and maybe he'll be able to pull out the winner.

As they 'phased' back onto the ground, both warily looking at each other, Link laughed lightly. So that's why Malik was so fast; his shoes were simple sandals, not his usual blue boots. The reason why he was moving so quickly is that his boots were weighted. Nice training idea, maybe he should try it himself…

"You're good, kid," Ross said impressed, "but speed isn't everything. I barely felt a thing."

Malik nodded. "I didn't touch you."

Ross blinked, confused. Why would he charge in and _not_ attack?

Malik raised his hands, showing fingers coated with ink. As Ross looked at his jacket, it appeared that Malik had drawn doodles all over, words scrawled here and there saying 'Gerudos are evil' and 'I like fish' with the customary 'kick me' scribbled on.

It was clear when an insult had been giving, and Ross was not one who took such insults with a laugh. Eyes narrowing, he snarled at Malik and Link could feel the build-up of mana in his fist, suggesting he was going to pull out a weapon.

As they charged in again, Link edged in closer. Luckily this time it was the brass knuckle instead of the knife, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Hand darting in, Malik grunted in pain as the fist implanted itself on his abdomen.

Malik was quick to recover, using the extended arm as a level to flip around and slam his heel onto Ross' forehead, shoving him a distance away. As he recovered and rose to his feet, Ross wondered why the surrounding people were laughing.

Malik, being the prankster as ever, had somehow placed ink onto his sandal's heel in the shape of 'stupid' and now like a chop it was printed onto his opponent's forehead. Snarling, Ross, bounced back to give space for his running charge.

Before it could hit Malik however, Link was suddenly there, his newspaper acting like a grappling hook as he allowed the knife to slice through and with a twist, disarmed Ross. With a twirl he twisted it so the hilt would smack him squarely in between the eyes.

"You don't have much in the sense of honour, do you?" Link said angrily, plucking the knife out of his shredded wad of newspaper. "It's one thing to use it on someone who knows it's there, but it's another to fight against a surprised unarmed foe."

Ross stared blankly, not being able to comprehend that someone just halted his attack halfway. "Hey, you're the first kid I fought." He said dumbly, mindlessly accepting back his knife. "You just stopped me, yet before I was a heck a lot faster than you."

"Get used to it. Now, do I have your promise that you won't use that knife in such a manner in a fair battle? If not, I'll have to confiscate it."

Ross Redsgain seemed to have recovered his composure and sneered at Link. "Like hell a little kid's going to order me around." The commotion was attracting a few guards, who watched what was going on.

Malik frowned, staring at the knife. There was a symbol written on the hilt, and for some strange reason he had the feeling that if he had been paying more attention in school lessons he would have been able to identify where it came from. He brought a few books to read in hopes of revision, but never got around to it. Jumping over the soldier he ran to the Palace to find one of them. He doubted it was dangerous, and even if it was Link should be safe in a crowd.

Snarling at Link, Ross' expression suddenly turned into an arrogant one. "Tell you what, kid," he said, eyes flicking towards the guards, "I'll challenge you to another fight. If you win, I'll accept your terms."

Link rolled his eyes, muttering something about battle-hungry enemies all the time. "Fine, fine. Get ready for some butt-kicking."

The guards muttered something about it being another 'testosterone showdown' before walking off, passing rupees around to see who will win.

Link now had the advantage of speed, but Ross still had the element of surprise. One thing Ross found slightly disturbing in this fight was that now his opponent was sticking on the defensive, always staying just a bit out of range in case he was going to flip out his knife. "You're not doing much butt-kicking, are you, eh?" He sneered at Link who seemed perfectly happy to circle around Ross.

"Only fool kicks someone else's backside from the front." Link replied condescendingly, throwing an insult at Ross' intellect. All he needed was for the man to attack and the quicker reflexes would carry out the rest from there.

Ross was slowly getting used to the game of insults and was not jumping straight into the attack this time. Snarling at Link, he decided to do a few tests. Charging his fist with mana made Link react, proving that his opponent would have an alerted warning system just before his attack even connected. It was going to prove to be difficult.

-

You would have expected that if you only brought two books over, you'd only need to look through two books. The problem that Malik had was that he didn't even know how his books looked like (rarely did he even glance at them) and since Reza also piled her addition of tomes, encyclopaedias and books so from what was meant to be browsing through two books becoming a chore of hunting through thirteen.

Not to say that Reza brought eleven – actually, she brought more than that. It was just the Gerudo references on them that made it clear to him that they weren't his own books. Now, was his book blue or red? Hardback or Paperback? Dense font or font with lots of white space? What was the title anyway? Who was the author?

To all those questions: flipping a coin would have given a more accurate answer than his memory.

And so, that's what he did: flip a coin.

-

Link was having a blast. Now that Ross was charging in and attacking, Link didn't dare throw any punches to allow his skin to heal nicely, but that didn't stop him from kicking. Using his upper body to create the torque for a crescent kick, his heal slammed hard into Ross' hip and he could almost hear a joint pop.

So far he managed to rip the brass knuckle off, the effort damaging his opponent's hands. After that Ross seemed to be more inclined to use normal attacks than his disguised weapons, as they didn't seem to be working. And now, Link was just pummelling him like using a Megaton hammer against a Deku Baba.

Suddenly from a far distance Ross lashed out again, but it wasn't a knife or a brass knuckle – somehow he managed to store a sabre in his loose sleeves and lashing it out it created the same damage done to Link before: shredding the front of his shirt and scratching his chest.

Ross was now striking out with an array of weapons, managing to pull a spear, glaive, tigerfork, lengthened mace and pole-armed weapons, trying to force Link out of the ring. It was partially successful as Link couldn't grab the blades and the handle was too far for him to get a grip on.

"Oh, stuff it." Link swore to himself, starting up his mana to make his skin as tough as stone. His opponent must be using a large amount of mana to keep releasing all those weapons, and it's not cheating to level his amount.

As raw magic started flowing through his veins, he noticed a pinprick of his own life essence stuck somewhere on Ross. Curious, he pooled his attention to it, taking a bit of time to realise that it was the small amount of blood that was on the edge of his sabre. Link could almost feel the way Ross' own mana warped and twirled around it, storing it in a smaller compartment.

Link's eyes widened slightly as he understood how his opponent's technique worked: like folding cloth, what Ross did was fold the fabric of space into one compact ball, only allowing the contents to 'leak' out from his elbows and ankles. Struck by the enlightenment, he was also struck by Ross' extended mace that smashed him out of the ring.

"Looks you couldn't give your butt-kicking, kid," Ross Redsgain smirked, although wiping a bit of blood from his lip, "so you can't do anything about my weapon storage."

"Yeah, yeah, I now have more important things on my mind." Link replied hurriedly, looking around quickly for Malik before heading straight to the Palace. He had a bit more training to do, and if Ross could pull it off, so could he.

-

Aha! After an hour of flipping through pages, Malik finally found the book and section he was looking for. The symbol he saw was a circle with a diamond piercing through. The passage on the symbol was very short, only two paragraphs long with no real notation to any race.

" 'This is the symbol for being one of the 'granted'," Malik read out loud, "given to those that have performed special service in the eyes of the Goddesses. This service might have been done in a time before or after, in a time when the person didn't do the service and a time when the person did. It can only be granted to men, for women get a different symbol.' Huh, strange." Malik shrugged before continuing.

" 'A bearer of the symbol may possess certain skills or aspects, for example the fortune that leads to wealth, or understanding that leads to content. Rarely are the granted corrupted by their skills, although there have been occasions when the gift has been exploited.' So… this doesn't really help me." Malik sighed, shutting the book. There were a few questions that he had. No doubt that the weapon using guy was misusing his skill, but what happens to him? Does lightning zap him, get turned into a frog or just get his gift taken away? What would happen to the gift, would it materialise to another person or like a cloud go poof?

-

"My shirt's taking a lot of abuse." Link commented as he tried to stitch together the cut, experience guiding his fingers.

"True, although I say its major abuse is you always wearing." Navi added on, yawning as her sight flickered towards the sun. "That's the same shirt Saria made for you six years ago, just extended and re-tailored. In fact, you wear it everyday, along with your extended and re-tailored cap. Why don't you wear a bit of change?"

"They all have sentimental value," Link said defensively, "they for one thing managed to follow me through the seal of time. And hey, if they could jump time with me, they probably would be a bit more durable than usual cloth. Saria also said that my cap was designed after a race of midgets with a long history with the Kokiri. Plus they feel nice."

Navi nodded, wondering whether she should take an early nap or not. "So? Outside the forest, you don't seem to be fitting quite well with locals. I'm sure there is a saying about fitting with your company, but I can't remember. And every Kokiri cap is fashioned after that race."

Link paused to admire his handiwork, thankful that wisdom of time taught him to have a sewing kit and extra green cloth with him always. "So? Malik and Reza don't seem to care either. I fit in with them in that sense."

She yawned, floating from her perch on his shoulder to his hat. "True enough. I'll be having a quick snooze now. Wake me up when it's time to sleep."

-

Practicing the art of war, the capability to send the least amount of soldiers to deal the most damage, training to capture and control enemy gains and learn the true definition of sacrifice: Reza was doing this by playing the game of Go. Surprisingly there wasn't any stakes set and bets placed, but Reza wasn't that worried about cash right now, managing to rob three muggers and a random guy on the street. She was kind enough to return the wallet to the random guy, but was appreciating the fancy leather of the thieves. Her total earnings for the day was probably more than the average man would make in a month – her only discontent was the worry whether her money back will support all the weight.

Playing as black gave the advantage of moving first, and she was quick to maximise that benefit by creating a protective curve of stones, each piece allowing a quick defence to another. Truth be told, she wasn't that amazing at this game compared to Link, but against her present partner she believed her defensive play was working quite well.

One of the benefits of Go was that you could take as much time as needed to decide on the next turn. So while she waited her turn, she had the free time to let her mind wonder. Being a Gerudo, the first thing that came to her mind was battle.

While staying with Link was not detrimental to her fighting capability – rather, the experiences allowed her to improve and they were constant enough to prevent rust. But relative to Link and even Malik, she was not up to speed in improvement.

Determined to get some exercise done later, she placed her stone and said, "Let's just say I win." It was more of a command than a comment, although it was obvious in terms of captured stones.

-

For Malik, it was hard work knitting a pink suit together and even harder to actually wear it. Not that his needlework was poor, but the fact that it would be the final and therefore most destructive blow against him pride.

Damn the Gerudos.

With a few tears to days of honour, he was about to wear it if it wasn't for Link walking by with a cannonball in his hand. Obviously Link wasn't going to find it – unless he managed to find a way to sneak a cannon into his clothes – but it was a good question to wonder what Link was going to do with it.

If you were to actually follow Link, you would have seen a much larger pile of cannonballs. His present training could be considered a secret since Navi wasn't around to watch, but what it really was, was him running around with the weights strapped to his elbows, back and thighs. After all the running, a bit of jumping, until he could do the same stuff he did usually but with additional weights. There was also a different point to this exercise as well.

Inhaling strongly, he checked one more time to make sure that his harness for the cannonballs wouldn't snap before starting his sprint around the Palace. Lacking in foresight, that eventually led up to him trying to swim with the weights, but what that doesn't kill you can only make you stronger.

As night approached, Link released the straps of the cannonballs, his sigh of relief blotched out by the heavy thud of all five cannonballs dropping onto the ground. Sniffing the air, there was only one comment he could make about his exercise:

"I need a shower."

-

The bliss of sleep. An enveloping hug of warmth with the welcomed feeling of unconsciousness. A time when dreams could roam freely and true expressionism is achieved. For Navi, one of the benefits of sleep is that you don't do anything much.

She was having quite a strange dream as well. It started off with Link pitying a dog he found on a street that eventually turned out to be a turtle with a gorilla on its back, and when taking it to the Forest Mido loved it so much he climbed up waterfalls daily. Saria however felt threatened by its presence so gave it an egg-timer which killed the gorilla, and the turtle celebrated by flying to the Ranch and congratulating the cuccos over there.

A cucco took that as a signal to commit suicide, running into the track where the horses tended to run. Epona however stopped herself from trampling the poor thing to death, instead choosing to kick it all the way to Death Mountain where Volvagia said 'hmm… chewy'.

The dream would have continued and most likely gotten weirder if not for the heavy clunk that interrupted her otherwise peculiar dream. Yawning, she rose from her roost on top of a decorative flower (for some reason, fairies slept better surrounded by moisture than out in the open). The window told her that it was night, resulting in the connection that it must have been Link who woke her up.

What's Link doing? Wearing his iron boots?

Rolling over to get a view of the door showed Link struggling to get his cannonball off the floor. Normally just holding it wouldn't have exhausted him, but carrying it up six flights of stairs and three corridors does tend to tire you out. Wiping off a bit of sweat that clung to his brow, Link renewed his efforts and managed to raise it high enough to place it on the bedside table.

It is always a smart move to relieve your burden when it gets too much. Rolling his shoulder joints, a crack and splintering sound interrupted what would have been a comment to Navi. Turning around showed that the poor table crumbled beneath all the weight.

"Hmm… Oops?" Link chuckled nervously. He was sure that Zelda wouldn't bother to make him pay for it, but questions would be asked and talking about a cannonball doesn't sound quite like a believable answer.

"You know, saying 'oops' sounds a bit to understated. What are you doing with that hunk of metal, anyway?" Navi drawled out, fluttering off her flowerbed and towards Link.

"A bit of exercise."

True to his words, Link was turning it into an exercise. For the following nights until the tournament, he slept with the cannonball on his stomach, his excuse was that it strengthened his breathing plus the neat effect of allowing him to have a stronger abdomen. As his theory on magic relied on the circulation of energy through the body, being able to breathe better was a plus.

His days were spent solitarily as well. While Reza ordered Malik to challenge her to another contest of words and deliberately lose (and Malik scream at the agony of her torments), Link spent most of the daylight hours simply running around with the strapped weights, meditating or repairing his clothes, sometimes trying to do both and see how well he could multitask. Needless to say, the days passed quickly with his strange routine until the day of the tournament arrived.

It was strange seeing him without all his equipment, Mali k had to admit. He was more used to seeing a Link with a shield on his back and a hookshot strapped to his belt than just a Link wearing his usual green garb only. With some agreements with the crown, Link was allowed to participate in the matches, providing he never used his sword – and he allowed Zelda to compete with him in the team matches.

With his bettered speed and durability Link literally smashed his way through to the finals, Zelda fighting alongside him occasionally with a quarterstaff twirling. It was considered cheating on a certain level, sure, but when his opponents had too long a weapon or too large a sword Link would infuse a bit of mana to be a spark as subtle as static but as devastating as lightning into his fingers and release his 'swordslayer' attack. A pity it only worked on metal things.

Nine rounds ahead, it was Link against Ross Redsgain once more. Ross looked as cocky as ever, but what was strange was Link's attitude. He didn't seem to give a damn about his knowledge on Ross' skills, a self-assurance that was both comforting and worrying to the spectators.

"Going to use your trick again?" Link said nonchalantly, placing his hands into his pockets. Looking up, it appeared that it would rain soon.

"Damn straight, for this is an anything goes match." Ross smirked, cracking his knuckled in anticipation. "You're going to take one hell of a beating."

"Who knows – they say that third time's charm, eh? Besides, I've picked out a few tricks of my own." Link gave his annoying smirk, one that was slowly becoming a trademark for the fights.

As the bell rang, by the tension of the air the crowd quietened, all eyes staring at the dusty arena. Men, women and children alike all watched with anticipation, like lions awaiting the scent of weakness and the redness of blood. It was the crowd that controlled the crown, and by that the crown could satisfy the crowd: they want blood, they get blood.

The initial fight was more of testing the opponents, both Link and Ross dancing around each other and applying quick punches and attempting to defend against those thrown against them. With a spinning kick Link managed to throw Ross a few feet off and taking advantage of the space rushed in to give a hard elbow to the gut.

Stumbling back Ross smirked at Link. "You've become better, kid. Let's see how well you've improved against this!" With a sharp lunge a spear materialised in his hand, the distance suddenly covered and the sharp point streaking towards Link's throat.

It didn't manage to land on Link, however. On the contrary, it somehow was flung right out of Ross' hands and struck the wall with a splintering crack. Surprised and slightly perturbed, Ross wondered how Link's hands could have moved so fast that he couldn't see.

Any following attacks resulted with the same effect – any weapon, _any _weapon, from any distance of either two millimetres away or two metres were tossed aside imperiously with only a twitch from Link's thumb indicating that he was responsible for it. Darts, throwing knives, spears, swords and even miniature bombs were chucked aside to fall harmlessly against the surrounding walls.

"I guess I haven't fully explained this trick of mine," Link said casually, choosing this time to narrowly dodge a thrown dart that scratched his shirt, "but I have to admit that I would never have learnt it without seeing you do it. I call it the web of strings."

To the astonishment of the crowd they saw Link's shirt slowly knit itself back together, and deliberately doing it in slow motion those with keen eyesight could see slithers of green thread appearing out of nowhere and curling around the tossed weapons yanked them out and with supernatural strength made them dance, sharp point towards Ross, in an intimidating circle.

"It would have taken ages to actually master your trick to the level I could store that much stuff," Link admitted, "and I tried it once with cannonballs – you have to be inhumanely strong, for you still feel the weight."

"Ha! That's because you haven't perfected the technique!" Ross shouted proudly, glad that at least his gift wasn't mastered so easily by this… kid.

Link shrugged. "Maybe I haven't, and maybe I never will. But people are innovative enough to overcome problems, and since I can't be stuffed to lug a shield around – I'm banned to, for this tournament – I carry string."

Link laughed at his ingenuity. "They say that force is equalled to mass multiplied by acceleration. I can supply quite a large force, and since string is so light, it moves pretty damn fast. It doesn't take much to control it either, since all you need to worry about is the tiny end." Smiling nastily, a wave shot forth and wrapped around Ross, binding him so that his hands were strapped tightly to his waist.

"I win, and you, for all your fancy gifts, lose."

-

The prize wasn't all that much to be entertained about. Sure, it was one hundred and fifty thousand rupees, what was Link going to do with it? Buy as many houses as he wanted? He only needed one, and in a sense he already owned one in the Kokiri forest: great view, good neighbours, and absolutely free.

So in an act of generosity he gave a third of it to Malik, and a third of it two Reza. Actually, in the end it was two thirds to Reza as Malik used the amount to buy his freedom. Fun and games all over, Zelda said that the sword was a bit too much for her to control, and suggested that Link bring it to the Great Deku Tree and see what advice Link could gather from there.

"It's amazing what colours you can get for rupees," Reza said admirably, rotating the amethyst coloured rupee so that she could see the refraction of sunlight through each of its faces, "it makes you wonder whether the monarchy just makes these when they feel like it. Bad due to hyperinflation, sure, but I wonder what materials they use to make this stuff."

"I don't know, maybe they dig it up?" Malik offered, in good spirits now that he didn't have to wear a chicken suit as he had to before.

Reza frowned at that. "Maybe, but that means that there's a fixed amount of money in this world, that it doesn't grow. I don't really like that idea as it means objects will drop in prices as you have to fit more items into less currency."

"But doesn't that mean that the rupee would be worth more?"

"True…"

-

A/N: Sorry if the ending sounded a bit rushed, but I just exceeded 10K words and believed that should I extend this chapter anymore it might get a bit redundant, resulting in it becoming quite boring.

Thanks to all those who bothered waiting and greater thanks to all those who reviewed. I am thankful of your patience and criticisms and wish that you would continue as such.

There might be a slight pause (much like the pause in between this chapter and the last) as I will also be working on Saria's Last Song – and my blasted Technology homework (curse the subject).

Au revoir (curse that language too).


	25. Interlude 2: Reza's thoughts

Interlude 2: Reza's Thoughts

The Hyrule Fields are wide and vast, a plain that would require days of constant travel to cover it in the least amount of time. Despite the pressing matters of Link carrying around evil incarnate or something, we're taking our sweet time to reach the Kokiri Village.

We seem to be visiting his abode quite often, more often than mine. Sure, they have Saria and the tiny stump of a tree over there, but we have Nabooru, great Sage of Spirits residing in the Desert. Also, I heard that Link can summon spirits in the Spirit Temple as well. That's a plus.

Reclining on my position on a rock, I try to blotch out Malik's voice. Admiring the stars and constellations, I vaguely remember that it was Navi's idea to play a 'game' where we tell each other facts that we believe the others didn't know before. All nice and dandy, but Malik's repertoire seems to be lacking: where Navi could talk about the behaviour of spring fairies, all Malik could conjecture is how he could scrape holes through his magically enhanced Sheikah tunnels with his fingernails.

To be fair, it's not the most boring thing in existence, but it sure isn't the most interesting either.

Scratching my belly lazily I wonder what Link's going to say. He seems to be wondering over the same matter, his crouched position beneath a tree not successfully concealing his furrowed eyebrows. After all, there's nothing in his life that Navi at least doesn't know – except for the place he called Termina, and in the past he seemed a bit reluctant to give anything more than a few snippets of information.

Belatedly I realise that Malik has finished ranting off about the pros and cons of durable dead skin cells and it's now my turn to say something. Well, I can't say anything much about fighting technique: even with our different fighting styles we can understand something of one others. Neither can I say much about those 'ghost stories' Nabooru loved telling us when we were young: told them those already.

I think Malon was the one most frightened by them.

That pretty much leaves Gerudo culture and history left.

Pausing and considering that thought, I curse slightly at my lacking knowledge. Sierra was right when she said that fighting only was only for idiots. What are most Gerudo taught? Mathematics, basic diplomacy, literature and poetry, music and art, physics and biology and for those hotshots chemistry, engineering and advanced maths and politics. Don't forget fighting.

That I do tell the group, although talking about Gerudo curriculum seems to be near the same level as Malik's fingernails. Since I traded poetry and art for advanced politics, there's not much for me to say in the first place. Scrounging my mind, I spurt the first thing that comes to mind.

A very bad mistake, considering it was the creation of our fortress. Nonetheless, I ramble on – cutting off suddenly is a sign of weakness, and even among friends any weakness is exploited.

Blame advanced politics for that conception.

To start with, the Gerudo were a simple village in the desert. More of nomads than settlers, camps were set up and packed with the rise and descent of the moon. Men and women were equals then, fighting strength and wisdom appreciated in both genders.

Considering the ruthlessness of desert sands and the dying of cattle, there was a need to find a way to protect the cattle. So in every major oasis a farm of a sort was set up, a loose fence built to prevent the goats, cows and cuccos from escaping. Desert shrubbery was bred to give a better harvest in those farms. We believed for the good of all desert dwellers, setting up human operable gates and writing instructions so that any passer-by could use them.

Our beliefs in the harmony of men were ill placed. Travellers, tired from the heat and exhausted from hunger cared little for the instructions, slaying as many cattle as they wanted for storable food and leaving less and less for the next visitor. The horrors lay in our sight: gates carelessly left open, resting houses poorly maintained and bones of farm animals littering the grounds. It was clear then, that letting just anyone abuse our goodwill was a mistake.

So it was decided: for every farm we would leave the men to guard and maintain. Every week they could visit the women and children, but it was realised that if the bulk of everyone kept moving around it would be difficult to find them. So a stationary fortress would be built, organised so the cruelties of the sun and wind would not harm the residents inside.

That was a mistake too. Word spread out quickly: the men were out maintaining the farms, and the women were cooped in some large town unguarded. Slave masters, thieves and passing groups of warriors attacked, all hoping for easy money and something they could sell for large cash later on. Quite naturally all of them were men.

That was one of the main reasons why all the Gerudos are required to learn how to fight: once you were caught by a slave trader, while you were close enough to the fortress for help you needed to fight your way free. If you are brought too far, even if you manage to grasp the elusive hand of freedom you life will be in the Goddesses' mercy, as the dunes change constantly and alone, survival is slim. From that overwhelming fear the Gerudo spin was created, to damage everyone surrounding you and with enough space created give your mad dash to safety.

Being so isolated we had no way to contact any of the men on the farms, but as time passed on any reason became moot – the fighting strength of the women surpassed the stagnating might of the farming men. Swords were needed, as was armour and resources to fight. That was how the necessity to steal arose – take the sword from your opponent and use it against him.

Armour became pointless, for such a weight would make it hard for you to escape and it's near impossible to steal the clothes off someone. From there arose the need for two curved scimitars, a dance of flashing steel that no weapon could penetrate. Forges were then built, melting enemy weapons to create the needed shape and strength for the Gerudo.

As time wore on our hatred for men built, as we stereotyped men as invaders and slave traders. Occasionally one of our farmers would return, but everyone usually met him with cold reception but his family. The prisons were then built to capture the more wealthy plunderers, taking all they had to reinforce the fortress and build more barracks. Humiliating them destroyed any remaining pride in them until they became mindless slave to us – as mighty as the women were, for construction the arms of a man was preferred.

Of course, our race would have died out with only women. So there were some expeditionary groups that went to find the farmers and bring them back, but soon it became known that the men were _worse_ than the women and instead they were attacked, leaving ghost farms behind. So the expeditionary groups had to search elsewhere: outside the desert.

That was the reason for politics in our studies, for a group of armed women without knowledge of the world outside the dunes is bound to hit trouble very quickly. As it was sometimes necessary to negotiate with the Hylians, Gorons, Zoras and even the Sheikahs for trade and supplies, we became adept in seeing through their veiled threats and disguised fears.

Perhaps by some intervention of the Goddesses or our… selective breeding, the male gender became less and less common in our race and red hair, olive skin and respectable strength and skill at arms became dominant among everyone. Some might have called us twins of each other, and sometimes we made the same mistakes sometimes: so was the start of the ranking system. The best would be garbed in white and keep their hair short, and the standard woman would wear purple. There were colours in between, as well as light blue for the infants, and now the fairly recent addition of black. Power, a sharp mind and confidence was now the dominating force of our hierarchy.

I pause in my story as Link asks a question. Everyone seems to find it highly interesting (although Nabooru might have my head for giving away our history so casually), Link's concentrating look replaced with keen interest and wonder. Malik seems to have a crick in his neck, possibly gained from having to look up at me for so long – Malik: zero, Reza: fifty-three.

Navi's question was a fair one, although the answer would have been better not said. I try to pull up the excuse of that night is wearing on and rest is needed, but they are adamant of hearing my history from beginning to present. Besides, Malik admits that everyone seemed well rested when he was talking – Navi had dozed off somewhere around his fourth word. Her question was what happened to the people we captured. Giving up, I give them the truth: the undisguised, hard truth.

We worked them to death. The stronger they were, the longer they lived, but the more work they did. The reason why we didn't need that many prison cells despite our numerous captures – no one was foolish enough to attack the Gerudo fortress, so instead we set up boundaries along the farms, and any man caught there was captured – was because most of them died before the next batch came in. And by batch, I mean batch, for we caught them routinely for any extensive labour needed. Our hatred for man had gone so far that not even children were spared. An outsider was an invader, regardless whether he was an old man or a confused toddler.

We became such a tight fighting unit that to attack a lone Gerudo would summon our combined wrath upon you: that's how we built such a fearsome reputation. The ravages of the heat also built up a new class: the fire witch. Understanding the elements that pummelled us continuously was a hard feat, but once achieved, mastery of the very thing that spelt death to others was in your hands. She would have been the complete leader, if not for the creation of the ice witch, based on theorising on intense concentration about the frost from the nights.

We needed a leader, but someone the two most magic enhanced could adhere to. That was how we came up with the idea of a King – statistically a male child will be born only once every god knows how many years, but more than a lifespan. He will have supreme control over the governing of the entire Fortress, and when he was not around the assistant will take place. The assistant was the most loyal, smartest and skilled of the elite, and to stick her out from the rest she was allowed to grow her hair long.

Then Ganondorf came along. The produce of one of the witches Kotake or Koume, you would be surprised that Nabooru swore total allegiance to him at one time. My mother, a devote follower of him, said once that he had everything: charisma, strength, wit, and an understanding of everyone in the Fortress. If he commanded an intruder punished severely, all forms of torture would be thought up and experimented on the poor victim. If he commanded a siege against Hyrule Castletown, the elite and every able-bodied soldier would pool their might for his order.

In a way we had to thank Ganondorf – he opened up a new branch of magic for us, and killed our isolationist beliefs and opened us up more to the wider world. Nabooru, being his assistant, was taught the ways of spirit magic, and she became so surprisingly adept at it he gave her the orders to research more into that branch.

The real 'rebel' was the woman called Teihra. Seeing their blank faces, I remind them that it was the statue we had somewhere in the Fortress who had the special two-bladed glaive. Her disagreements with Ganondorf started with her affair with a Sheikah, whom Ganondorf proclaimed their enemies due to intense historical rivalry and that the High Mages kept sending death threats to him. If my mother's stories were right, Nabooru despised her: she was the antithesis of everything Nabooru believed in.

That all changed when Ganondorf made the mistake of opening a portal to a demon world. Monsters more hideous that imagination can comprehend started pouring out, and everyone was called to ward them back into the portal until Ganondorf could shut it. We would have been exterminated, the demons let loose upon Hyrule if not for Teihra. With her unique fighting style she hacked them into pieces, like a tornado ripping them up like chaff and gorging great rivulets in their numbers. They overwhelmed her, she died in the end, but she managed to kill so many that the demons were afraid to enter.

I asked Nabooru about this, and she kept a tight lip on this matter. From what I could discern, she thought about the basis of Gerudo culture. Power equals respect, and that broke one of he barriers between Teihra and Nabooru. She could respect he deceased comrade, and that started a long string of thoughts regarding Ganondorf, his intents and the progression of the Gerudo race. That Ganondorf admitted to making a serious mistake helped matters slightly.

The rest, you'll have to ask Nabooru about. Yawning, I conclude my story there, but I warn them to _not_ ask Nabooru about it. If she knew I was blabbing history that involved her… giving a stern glare to Malik, I reduce his impetuous rebellion into a smoking husk of its beginnings.

My story leaves them thinking deeply, everyone engrossed in thought and only the crickets creating the sounds. Enjoying the cool breeze – you hardly get those in a desert, only bitingly cold or wearily hot – I pitched up my tent and with little effort managed to doze off.

The days passed, Navi keen to start the 'I-know-something-you-don't' game again, but I refused to say anymore on the matter. Replaying the story in my mind, it was sad to see how a benevolent and giving nomads became ruthless groups of females in the end. Never before was there a stronger story on the bitterness of society and mankind than the history of the Gerudos.

Our arrival in the Lost Woods met with the usual reception: little kids all dressed in green swarming around us, Link giving small trinkets that he picked up here and there. Of course, those trinkets were accompanied with a near maniacal glare which stated 'this is your property now, so hands off mine'.

Navi chose to fly off and meet with her usual fairy companions somewhere, Link proceeded to the almighty tree stump and that left Malik and I to lounge around in Link's apartment. It was at times like these I wished Malon was around to talk to – one minute with Malik equals one hour of hell.

Being as persistent to the level of an irritating fly, he kept questioning me about the areas I didn't cover in my story. Like why certain colours were picked for certain things. To a question like that, how the heck am I supposed to know? I may be the best Gerudo scholar among all four of us, but I'm not the best historian in the world.

Nonetheless he keeps putting up his theories and counters them seconds later. As annoying as it is to keep listening to the constant chatter, at least he's leaving me alone.

Thinking back, I remember a time when Link suggested that we stole when we fought. Not a bad theory, but slightly incorrect. No fool will pay any attention to stealing while her life is in jeopardy. Theft came from having quick hands and nimble fingers, but that point would be rendered moot if I held a sword.

The truth was that we divided a battle into four sections: in motion, swords engaged, holding the aggressive and being on the defensive. In truth most of them overlapped all the time, but with that type of thinking we could pick the correct time to… relieve our opponent of his equipment. It's pretty much when in motion steal as you will – the chances are he or she won't notice. If on the aggressive, it's best to keep being on the aggressive, and if defending, you don't want to lose your head due to a pretty penny.

I prove my point by poking Malik with a needle. Startled and surprised, he naturally jumps to his feet and tries to avoid the needle. With his attention focussed on one hand, he forgets the other hand slipping in his pockets and deftly taking his wallet. I guess you could say I was being aggressive by making sure he was always in motion, but I got his wallet. Point made.

After that I simply took my time to lounge around, loafing around the place and enjoying the scents and sounds. With a house made entirely out of wood, there was quite a pleasant fragrance about the place. Like a picturesque scene from a fantasy story the birds always twittered and a constant hum of light children laughter filled the background. Almost faintly you could hear the magic from Saria, a pleasant tune drifting softly through the air. All the sounds were incredibly faint, but together they created one soothing orchestra of symphony.

Of course, that's not how I would describe it to someone. It'll take too long. The statement of 'it sounds good' is good enough. Let them imagine the rest.

Link returns a couple of hours later, saying that the Great Deku Tree suggests that what he do is create another sword or whatever to negate the evil forces from the first one. Since Link's first link was with the Lost Woods the first time, what the Great Deku Tree said was that Link could draw off the Great Deku Tree instead, and he'll act like a protective guarantee and filter what goes to Link. Otherwise, Link can channel the magic off Castletown – the people there were cheerful, the life spunky, and it was close enough to Impa and Zelda that they should be able to deter any interception and interference.

His words were not the main thing on my mind. Lying on the ground and not moving for the three or so hours he was away, it was a tough struggle to get up. My back popping as I change its position abruptly, Malik takes the opportunity to snicker.

The grin left his face quickly enough when I waved his wallet around. It was my turn to have my share of chuckles when I tossed it out the door, Malik pretty much diving to grab it. Unfortunately, he dived when he ran out of platform.

Malik: zero, Reza: fifty-four.

As Malik managed to climb back up, we were left to twiddle our thumbs as we awaited Navi's return. She must have been having a blast with her fairy friends, for an hour of quiet waiting later and with the sun slowly setting behind the distant trees, she still did not appear.

Link could sense the heavy boredom and discomforts of both Malik and I (I stayed still for another hour and Malik just jumped off a tree), and came up with the brilliant idea of teaching us his web of strings technique. It seemed to be a double bonus, the continuous use making it so that he needed less mana to support and that it also made his mana reserves a lot larger. Link managed to get to the point that he could hold some string and a first aid kit, and he believed that with another month or so he should be able to hold everything he held.

That was quite an interesting prospect. Imagine: a nutty fool decides to pick on an unarmed Gerudo (foolish indeed – just because we aren't carrying a sword around doesn't mean we can't give a good punch), and I suddenly pull out a pair of scimitars. If that does not give him the fright of his life, maybe chasing him with a glaive will.

The problem Link states is that he could learn the trick because he could 'see' how the mana wrapped around the object, curling in and therefore reducing the space into dust. It was a complicated weave and getting tangled would mean starting again, but if I couldn't see the mana lines in the first place, I might as well try and knit blindfolded.

Malik shows his disappointment by going to find Navi. Actually, no, I showed my disappointment by sending Malik to find Navi. Actually, no, I showed my disappointment by wrestling and throwing Malik outside – maybe he'll search for Navi.

When Link called it 'battle of the cripples' I threw him out too. Hah, being beaten by a cripple, shame on him.

The sun rose the next morning as per normal – it will be a true sign that the Goddesses have abandoned us if it didn't – but all the Kokiri rose even earlier. Link, struck by inspiration, decided that he'd teach everyone how to perceive the use of magic. For this trick he also called Saria to help, and ever since her duties as the Forest Sage everyone had been seeing her less and less. With a double benefit, they could burn the effort to get up a bit earlier than usual.

As we all waited for Saria to turn up, Link managed to find a couple dozen fairies to help him. With the education of their Kokiri partner in mind, of course they would have helped. Asking them to fly in a circle, it didn't take long for them to create a near solid ring of wings and coloured glows.

Link then took some time explaining the importance of a circle shape in pretty much life basically. Without warning he shot a small spark of mana inside the circle at one unsuspecting fairy, but instead of catching her flatfooted like it would have normally the magic diffused around the spinning fairies, each one only getting enough magic to tickle.

Ignoring the angered fairy, Link continued his explanation that mana in its rawest forms tries to take a form that it is 'comfortable' with. One of those forms is a circle, and since all the fairies had mana of their own it just followed their flight line, but _opposite_ the direction they were flying.

He continued to explain the importance of geometric shapes in magic, bouncing different densities of mana around the circle and explaining why some would reflect instead of being absorbed. His idea followed relational strength, the attitude of the contact depending on the total mana strength of all the fairies, the strength of the mana shot and the resistance of the specific fairy being hit.

As good as Link was in doing it, he wasn't that good in teaching it. All the jargon and details were good, but they weren't helping most of the Kokiri's understanding much. Mido, as prideful as ever, didn't want to look like he wasn't understanding and so didn't raise much complaint, but nearly everyone else did. Even me.

Saria took that time to come in, and I had to admit she was a better teacher than Link. Applauding Link for using the fairies to show how mana flowed, instead of using it in front of us she tried to make us think of mana as ribbons. If you tugged softly at one end, the whole ribbon will follow in a straight line. If you tugged harshly, it would coil up and some parts might be closer to the tug than others.

That was the basis for detecting magic, she said. Soft tugs only got you one type of shape, and unless the person you were trying to detect was trying to make a simple construct he wouldn't get very far that way. A hard tug was needed to create more complicated things, but since more mana was needed it would be easier to detect. In a real world situation however a person would use a complicated mix of soft and hard tugs, pulling in all directions. That was even easier to notice because if you weren't specifically hunting around for certain strength of a tug, you could just feel the bounces of differing pulls.

Of course, you can't just learn magic in just one afternoon. Saria and Link managed to hold everyone's attention for the whole day, the know-it-all brothers showing why they knew-it-all by taking notes. If it wasn't for the insistence of Link's stomach, I bet we could've watched until nightfall.

At the end of the day I was no way near seeing mana, although I felt a prickling sensation whenever Link did anything dramatically large, say, uproot a tree from five metres and put it back in again and brush the soil back on. At least I had an inkling of how mana worked.

As night approached Link wrapped up the session by drawing a bunch of funny circles and mathematical figurines inside other figurines around the bonfire and asked everyone just to stare at them and try and comprehend them. Malik was having a blast counting how many triangles there were inside one diagram, and since I reasoned they'd still be there the next morning I took the time to talk with Saria.

It's truly amazing what two girls can come up with to talk about. First of all we were talking about the magic session today, then she commented on how I managed to draw mana from Link and convert it through one complex structure, and that led to her ribbon idea, and after intense discussion of fashion of followed later on we ended at the topic of hairstyle.

Truth is told there were only two hairstyles for the Gerudo: long and tied back in a high ponytail, or short. Both were meant to make sure that hair didn't get in the way when fighting or doing any physical activity and were so easy to keep that no one bothered spending hours on making sure every strand was in the right position.

Saria also commented on how the Kokiri really didn't care about hairstyle. Sure, sometimes the girls might enjoy braiding each other's hair or brushing it, but in the end it would just dangle down their backs at the end of the day.

She also shared a personal secret with me. The reason why her hair was short was that, as it grew longer, it lost its tinge of green and would end up white. It was rare to have white hair at such a young age, but then again it was rarer to have green hair in the first place. Every month or so she would spend a few minutes in front of a mirror, snipping away so that none of her hair ever got long enough to show whitening. No one questioned her fashion, and at first some three hundred odd years ago she remembered someone calling her vain, but no one cared anymore.

She confided to me her feelings of a certain time when Link was an adult and Ganondorf sealed her powers to such an extent that her hair went brilliant white. So ashamed and afraid she hid somewhere around the forest, hoping that she might find that Phantom Ganon and stop him from drawing magic off the forest and ultimately her. It unfortunately didn't work that way, but luckily Link managed to defeat it, returning the forest back to its usual state, but her as an awakened Sage.

She brought me to her house and showed me a mirror. It wasn't a well decorated mirror, fairly simple and slightly cracked but on contact I felt the same prickly feeling as when Link did his stunt with the tree. Almost fondly she said that the mirror was special in that it could show the beholder anything that went on it the woods, and when she was hiding away she could see the atrocities cast upon the Kokiri Forest. Chuckling lightly she commented on how angry she felt when she saw what Ganondorf unleashed on the forest, sometimes so angry she sometimes threw the mirror onto the ground, but thankfully it stayed working because she used the very same thing to know where the Moblins were – and that's how she never got caught.

The future sounded like a pretty grim place. My respect for Link went up a notch, for even though he might be making a few blunders here and there, at least he managed to defend Hyrule from going down a path of darkness – a darkness that the Gerudo would have been blamed for.

Thinking back on Link, it's amazing how life went by with him. I, like my mother, was at first an angry 'all males are evil' standard Gerudo, and took a sick pleasure in seeing Link get mauled in the Wolfos pit. And look at me now: one of his companions, who went through thick and thin and travelled most of Hyrule with him.

Speaking of which, we haven't visited the Zora Domain yet. I might have to say that to him some time – his friends over there might be missing him.

But as Saria leads me to a place she usually visits to gaze at the stars, I take the luxury to appreciate the blanket of light held up in the sky. The Blue Hunter, ever keeping his bow aimed to the south. The Fishmonger, his scales always unbalanced as he uses different weights each time. The Night Dancer, her twirling movements enrapturing the gazes of the universe. And of course, the constellations that symbolise the three goddesses around the Triforce, a sight that has never failed to put awe into me.

Maybe I'll tell Link about Zora Domain some time, but not now. Lying next to Saria in the soft grass, we watch in companionable silence the stars, occasionally pointing at a galaxy seen in the sky.

Maybe that was the reason Link kept visiting this place: the scenery at day was wonderful, but the scenery at night was unrivalled.

-

A/N: Hmm, three cheers to spontaneous imagination. I just invented the story of the Gerudo, the fighting thoughts of the Gerudo and Link and Saria's description of magic on the spot. Quite well done, I must say.

Maybe I should suggest my Gerudo story to Nintendo: who knows? Maybe they'll like it.

In case anyone had been noticing, the mirror was my addition of Disney's Beauty & the Beast (I'm not sure if the real one had a magic mirror as well – probably). Ah, I remember watching it what… four years ago? Maybe less.

That's quite interesting, my motion/engagement/aggressive/defensive idea. If I develop that further, maybe I can actually make it into a real fighting principle. If I do, it's time to win a few fencing championships!

As if.

Once again, thanks to all my readers for reading through some blab I made to fill the time, and feel free to use any ideas suggested here for your own uses: providing you mention me, otherwise it would be plagiarism. Enjoy.


	26. Speaking with Spirits

Chapter 24: Speaking with Spirits

Link sighed at the broken mess it front of him. The Kokiri will not be happy about this development. First he transforms their treasure sword into something totally different. They were grudgingly accepting about that, considering that his ability to survive depended very heavily on his ability to kill quicker. Then he snapped the sword, making it impossible for them to get their relic back. He received an ear-boxing for a while for that, but reason came to them in that nothing is forever and that constant use and wear would have eventually weakened it.

Now he broke their very last item: the Fairy Bow. Saria would kill him.

No wait, she's too sweet and kind and understanding to do that. More like reduce him into mince meat drop him into a lake and hire some contract killers to kill him. That contract killer would most likely be Mido.

Maybe they'll understand his plight. After all, the bow snapped when Link was shooting down the Stalfos that suddenly appeared on the field. They had no time to consider what it meant when Stalchids were being replaced with their more menacing counterparts, and definitely no time to let the bowstring relax. For five minutes the string continuously hummed and sang, arrow after arrow being launched into the eyeholes of the behemoths.

"Well, you can always make a new bow and hope no one notices." Navi suggested, floating close the bent wreck. "Then again, this is a unique design. You might not be able to trick everyone."

Reza gingerly picked up the wire that fell loose. Where the body received a splintering crack right down the middle, the recoil made the wire roll up into a tangle not unlike barbed wire. "I don't see what's so special about that bow that you cannot use another." The craft was superb, she had to admit, but not being a bow-user herself she didn't give a hoot to whether it was good or better,

"It's not that it's specific," Link fretted, nervously clenching and unclenching his hands, "it's just that who can I ask to make a good bow? Kakariko isn't a war factory, the Kokiri only made that bow to celebrate the fifteen hundredth birthday of the Great Deku Tree and no offence to the King but his armoury is hopelessly bad."

Reza rolled her eyes at him. "You could always ask the Gerudo, you know." She personally agreed with Link on the matter of the royal armoury. Once she was using a generous knight's helmet as a battering dolly to train on, and after four hits the last one managed to cleave right through it. Poor workmanship; any fool wearing that would have a heck of a time dodging blows to the head.

Malik shuddered, remembering the last time he visited. Reza's devil of a sister tried to make his body freaking explode. Curse the Gerudo and their enjoyment of spices. He mentally added a few choice swearwords to use against Sierra as well. "They can't help you." He said abruptly, hoping that this would deter Link from dragging them to that horrid place.

"Au contraire," Reza said cheerfully, delighting in Malik's displeasure, "since my culture is based around fighting of kinds, we're the best people to go to for references on weapons and the like. Link, I'm sure you know how much attention we spend on archery as well, so it shouldn't be that hard to fit you with a decent bow."

Link mulled it over, nodding his head slowly in agreement. He wondered why Reza didn't bother with the bow, but maybe it was considered second-class to fighting with two scimitars. "Good point. Let's go to the Gerudo Fortress."

Malik's face soured. "Do we have to?"

Link shrugged his shoulders. "You don't have to follow if you don't want to. Just head back to Kakariko Village and once we've done our business over there we'll return to pick you up."

Being slap bang in the middle of the Hyrule Field meant that it would take at least two nights worth of riding to reach his hometown. The prospect of facing dozens of Stalfos alone didn't sound very appealing to Malik. Grumbling slightly he shook his head, choosing to accompany Link instead – better a burnt stomach than a dead body, although with the Gerudo that line was getting finer and finer with the more encounters he had.

Link was still by far unarmed, of course. Wielding his deadly magic meant that anything ignitable feared him, and of course his Megaton hammer and Hookshot made him still the considerable foe. Due to personal reasons Link left the Biggoron Sword back in his house (reason being that it was too damned heavy for him to swing around with enough finesse).

"So what're you going to do over there?" Link asked Reza. "Going to catch up with a few acquaintances?"

She didn't spend much time thinking for an answer. "Train. It's best not to waste the facilities given to me. Maybe I'll see how the Black Gerudo and Sierra are getting along – I've always wondered how they did their stunts. What are you going to do Malik? Cower in a hole somewhere?"

"There are holes to cower in?" Malik asked hopefully, his eyes glistening with joy."

"No."

Despair struck him again, his back hunching in dejection. "I'll find a way to master the arts of not being found."

-

A glimpse of Castletown would show that the people were doing their daily tasks of peddling, buying and delivering as usual. A tense feeling of uncertainty hanged over them nevertheless, a feeling that will not go away whilst the looming walls of the Temple of Time still held their shattered windows.

A great monument to the wonders of human architecture, few knew of its hidden depths, of the powers resting behind its secret doors. Many understood the legend of the Master Sword and the Triforce, but not all could comprehend how close it was to them and the evil sealed within it.

But not all of the Sacred Realm was tainted. The doorway to the Realm, the Chamber of Sages was continually cleansed by the powers of the six sages that visited routinely. If there was nothing on their agenda they would focus on spreading their powers to purge the darkness of the Sacred Realm, although most of their efforts were exhausting yet accomplishing little.

Today however there was something that required their attention. Rauru, Saria, Darunia, Ruto, Impa and Nabooru, all gathered in the great mystical halls. Well, gathered was an incorrect term, since all they did was cast their spirits into the Chamber of Sages, except Rauru who kept constant vigilance and pretty much lived there.

It was Ruto who mentioned the matter that brought them all there. In her usual attitude, she skipped the pleasantries and courtesy to dive straight into the matter. "Stalfos," she declared, "are encroaching everywhere. At night they're managing to steadily inch closer towards Zora Domain. I don't know what in their animated monstrous bodies gives them brains, but night-by-night they manage to think of ways to get pass the rivers."

Nabooru nodded in agreement. "Luckily we have the desert in between us and the Field, but scouts have reported of Stalfos trying to cross the Desert. Thankfully all of them die from the intense cold, but the first worry is why we're no longer dealing with Stalchids instead."

Darunia rumbled in thought. "Well, if we follow the Stalchid story, they arrived from our wars as lost souls. Maybe the Stalfos are the same?"

Impa chuckled darkly at that. "Any soul that can animate something so foul has to be very dark. I refuse to believe that there are that many souls with such darkness within them. They weren't there a week ago, so there has to be a different reason why they're here now."

"Link said he made a mistake of making a sword with the madness of the Forests concentrated in it. Perhaps that is sparking all of this?" Saria offered, although she seemed unsure of her own suggestion.

Rauru sighed, looking sadly at his potbelly. When he was alive and with a body, not a day would be spent without enjoying one delicacy or another. From the Gerudo curries to the Kakariko fried noodles, he sampled and savoured them all. Now sealed in the astral plane that was now a distant memory. He jolted himself out of his nostalgia when everyone looked at him for his opinion on the matter. Coughing to clear his throat, he shuffled his orange robes a bit before speaking.

"Perhaps Link's mistake is generated all the darkness needed to disfigure the lost souls, but that should in theory only make them appear near Link, not everywhere. I think however Saria has the right idea: it's a new thing causing these new circumstances. Now, aside from Link's sword, we can draw back to the events of the church being desecrated and that soldier in the Castle being possessed."

Everyone was quiet at that. No one liked to think of its implications. "They say a demon did it." Nabooru said after a while, frowning. "I remember meeting one demon at the Fortress. Scarily overpowered and the works, it even had an army of Dark Copies following it. That one died."

Ruto groaned. "Ugh, so there are more of those things then."

Nabooru nodded. "While the demon itself is a bit worrying, the fact that some of the Copies were moulded after Snakemen is worth consideration."

Ah yes, Snakemen. A mythic race that was meant to have extinguished itself battling against the Zora for control over their domains, some said that they managed to flee in exile to another continent altogether, the rest believing the story that all were wiped out. While not like the Wolfos in the sense that they were driven by instinct and bloodthirst only, they weren't like the Zoras either in their fascination over killing and death.

Impa shrugged. "Maybe the demons have a living version and are created copies of it. That would be a quick way to expand their army."

Saria looked dubious at that. "If we follow your theory, it would hit a roadblock on how a single creature can survive alone. There has to be at least one other of the opposite gender, and if two are alive, who's to say that two hundred are not?"

Darunia grunted at that. "Yes, that's a problem, but let's tackle the first one we came here for. What are we going to do with all these Stalfos? It's making trade a little bit difficult since not all tradesmen are properly equipped to deal with such a hazard."

"The trades problem isn't too bad," Impa said indifferently, waving her hand. "Just make sure every caravan has an escort of six guards and no one wanders around at night and that should be dealt with."

"My suggestion is that we place charms all over the field to make it harder for Stalfos and Stalchids alike to form." Saria said. "We just hand them to the merchants and ask them to place one at every two hundred metres, so at least the trade routes will be protected. We can then create the practice of replacing aging ones. The Kokiri don't have much to do and Link has already educated them lightly in magic; they should be able to make some charms for me to distribute."

Rauru nodded. "True, I can get Kaepora Gaebora to carry those charms to the farms and cities. It unfortunately is not dealing with the problem, just the symptoms. This is one large cause-and-effect matter."

Impa nodded. "So we know the cause might be Link's mistake and the demon. Now what are we meant to do about that? Even if we explain to Link, I doubt he'll be so willing to part with his sword in fear that it'll go horribly wrong without his restraining presence."

Ruto chuckled at that. "Link seems to see himself as quite the miracle man. I'm sure that we can persuade him that all six sages might do a better job than him alone."

Darunia shrugged his shoulders. "A miracle man he might think himself, but to me a miracle maker he already is. Didn't he save us all in the future and battle Ganon? We all questioned whether our powers even united would stand a chance against Ganon, but Link managed to pit himself against the beast and win. Besides, he's seen more than us in terms of the demon we're facing, so he might know what we're dealing with better than us."

"So what do we do about his sword?" Nabooru asked.

Rauru sighed. Saria and he were the oldest of all the Sages (although he wished he was like Saria in that she didn't show it) and it seemed that everyone else was still as impetuous as ever in not being able to think long enough. "We call Link over, and give him something like the Medallions we gave to him a Time ago." Rauru mentally congratulated himself on that – not making the mistake of saying the past and not the error of saying the future. "Nothing as big and fancy, but something so that we can always keep our presence nearby so we can react to any changes in it and give a suppressing aura."

Ruto nodded, clearly agreeing with his plan. "Alright, so what do we do about the demon?"

"We first have to wait for it to appear." Saria said thoughtfully. "If we give our medallions to Link, since it's bound to appear near him we shouldn't wait long for its arrival. From there the best I can think of is that we try and seal the demon where he stands and hope Link can vanquish it."

Nabooru sighed, rubbing her temples. "Demons are slippery things, I doubt that will work. I can't think of anything better than that however, so we might as well stick to that plan. Trick A will be finding Link."

Rauru smiled. "My trusted owl friend has found that his course has changed and he's heading straight to the Desert. It's no trick."

Nabooru blinked, wondering what he would want over there. Maybe Reza persuaded him to. "Okay then, Trick B will be giving the amulets or whatever to Link. I don't think we can all pass them to me so I can hand them over, can we?"

Everyone looked at each other. They never tried it before, so maybe it would work. It didn't go as expected, Nabooru instead receiving bolts of darkness and light, streams of fire and ice and getting entangled in vines.

"Nope, we can't. And we're trying another time." She managed to cough out.

-

Link didn't really like using the Megaton hammer. Epona, his brave steed, could not be shaken by the new monsters but didn't like the vibrations from the ground as he slammed the hammer's almighty weight to and fro.

Of course, she was perfectly happy if his strikes were direct hits, and Link was very willing to change the rules slightly to her whim. With the weight of the hammer it was incredibly slow in motion, but any hits meant a lot of damage.

Link wiped the sweat from his brow once finishing dispatching the charging Stalfos. Resting the hammer's head on the ground, he took the short time to admire the Stalfos' shattered shield where it suffered direct impact. Looking aside briefly showed that Reza was quite successfully gutting down a Stalfos all by herself and strangely enough Malik's knives were quite effective when he worked with Epona.

"I prefer the easy shorter versions." Reza muttered, frowning at her blunted sword. She hadn't sharpened it in the last few weeks, so it was understandable, but very ill timed. "The sooner we get to the Fortress, the better. I don't think I can last another night without decent sleep."

Malik groaned in agreement, slumping against Epona, clapping her shoulder in gratitude. For a small horse she must have weighed a tonne: most Stalfos, once trampled over, chose not to get up. His dinky little knives wouldn't have done much damage against their thick bones and quick shields, but with him the distraction and Epona the real weapon it wasn't much trouble taking the recent opponent down easily.

"If we ride continuously for the next seven or so hours at a brisk trot, we should reach there in time." Link estimated, gazing at the moon. "Night should end in another eight hours."

Malik moaned. "Dear Din I don't think I can stand another eight hours of fighting. I'm not the aggressive type."

No matter what they had faced and dangers they've understood, they were still children regardless and therefore were not properly built to stand two nights without sleep. Link was too lazy to run around and smash in skeletons, so instead revised his spell Din's Fire to become a ball of fire that he could launch and expect to incinerate a clean hole through a line of the undead.

Even Epona couldn't keep slugging it on, and as midnight wore on they had to concede defeat to their weariness and find a safe spot to nap in. A bit hard, considering that Stalfos could pop out anywhere. They were lucky however when Link recognised the grounds as where they fought before.

"I remember this tree cover," Link muttered to himself, pausing to look around, "I think I know where we can hide out for a while." By memory he stumbled across the field, concentrating on the scenery illuminated by the moonlight. For a few minutes it seemed that they were going in circles as Link homed into the location.

"I don't think we'll ever find-" Malik's groan was cut short as ground ran out from his feet. Blearily he got up, looking at the passages now surrounding him. "Eh? What's this?"

Link smiled. "Remember where I fought some Dark Angels out here and you two and Malon found out they're weak to blood? Well, this is the underground maze that I managed to dodge around them in. It's a bit small, but that at least means no Stalfos can fit inside."

Link's version of small was quite impressive, actually. The tunnels were wide enough to allow Epona to walk through and tall enough to allow Navi to hover a foot above. Of course, no one took the attention to absorb such details, just happy with the fact that no Stalfos would fit. Slowly the walked towards the main hallway which had been cleared by Link's Goron's Powder Keg's blast to rest. It was a bit sandy, but no one was complaining.

The morning came too quickly for their weary eyes, but it was necessary to travel during daylight and complete the last leg of their journey before night arrived and then there might not be such a certain chance of finding such a lucky hiding spot.

Malik rode Epona this time, his sandals worn so badly that the entire front half was pretty much eroded away. Since he passed and was now approved (albeit a bit unhappily) by the Gerudo, for a small fee someone should be kind enough to replace them. Reza wondered what Sierra would be doing, considering that she wasn't one who enjoyed playing the simpler games of tag.

Her answer came a lot earlier than expected. As was known to everybody, there was a river that led to Lake Hylia that was spanned by a bridge, and you would have to cross that bridge and then finally the desert perils before you reached the Fortress. With the attack from the demon Shukaku defence was stepped up and now sentries armed with the more punishing crossbows and arbalests were positioned here in hopes to use the bridge to choke any army. It was also used to give some of the Gerudo a task to do by routinely changing shifts out here.

It appeared to be Sierra's turn, along with nineteen other Gerudo of varying ages. Everyone under the age of eighteen seemed to have taken quite the fancy to one form of entertainment: fishing. Lines over hundreds of metres long were connected to five feet poles that were meant to be fishing rods. As relaxing fishing is meant to be, the Gerudo version was meant to punish the muscles and let them truly feel the wrath of the river.

As Reza approached Sierra suddenly hopped to her feet, yelling excitedly. "This is going to be a big one!" she called out cheerily, pulling the pole closer to resist the fish's tugs. As Reza looked closer it was quite a primitive fishing rod, just a stick and a string, making her wonder how on earth did you reel a fish in.

That was answered too as three more girls flanked Sierra, holding tight to the shaft and at the count of three flicked it up sharply. Miraculously the string did not snap from all the forces being applied to it and it successfully snapped the fish out of the waters, sending it soaring above their heads.

As it rose further and eclipsed the sun with its form, aside from admiring the spectacle of strength Link could only think about how this gave a new meaning to flying fish. Slowly it halted its ascent and started its descent, accelerating back down, guided by the yanks of the fishing rod beneath. As everyone watched in awe, with an incredibly loud smack it smashed into the bridge.

"Not bad eh?" Sierra smirked, gliding over to her best catch yet, "must be at least twenty pounds. I love this sport."

"Sport?" Reza asked incredulously.

All the girls nodded solemnly. "It takes great patience and strength to hold the fishing rod for as long as we have, and even greater strength and skill to manage to pull even the weakest of fish free of the currents. After that only experience and skill can guide the fish onto the bridge instead of the waters in came from." One girl explained. Sierra smiled broadly.

"Success means that the impact kills the fish too, so no animal cruelty person can argue with this." She added. "It also means that we get to eat something different today. One does tire of the same food day in and day out."

The girls didn't spend much time waiting around to see whether they could convert Reza to their cause as one had to scramble back to her pole to not lose it, and soon enough the rest accompanied to help.

Malik chuckled. "Crazy sport for crazy people. No offence guys, but I don't think any sane man would accept this as something to do for leisure." As if taking offence, his head was the designated landing spot for the next fish. Luckily only the fish died from the contact, but Malik was knocked out cold.

Reza smiled. "I'm liking this game more each second."

-

"You say that you need a new bow, kid?" The Gerudo bow-maker asked, standing imperiously with arms crossed right in front of Link. "Well, I only build bows for people who are good at using them. You're going to need to prove your aim first."

Link shrugged. He already knew how to use a bow well, so anything they throw at him wouldn't be hard.

As if taking his thoughts as a pun, the Gerudo's way of proving your aim was by throwing javelins.

"You see that red patch over there?" she yawned, not caring whether Link could see it or not. "It's roughly two hundred metres away. You see all those sticks in between you and it? Believe it or not they do manage to block javelins. You got fifteen tries to get three javelins inside the red blob."

"But I never learnt how to throw a javelin!" Link said unhappily, holding the wooden shaft awkwardly. He was sure he could improvise as he went along, but whether he would improve quickly enough was another question.

The lady rolled her eyes, muttering about spoilt children nowadays. "Fine," she grumbled, "I'll show you once. If you don't learn it then, touch."

Link nodded. With Navi around, at least he wouldn't have that much trouble memorising details. As she wrapped her fingers around the grip, Link quickly grabbed in the fine points on her foot stance, grip, elbow and shoulders, back and bend in knees. He watched carefully as she finally threw the javelin, taking note of muscle contractions and where the point was.

Her throw wasn't what he was expecting. While it flew smoothly, it struck one of the poles in the way – but instead of being held in place like any obstacle was meant to do, both splintered, sending the shards of the javelin hurled like throwing knives at the target and the snapped pole holding enough momentum to raze down any other obstacle in the way.

At Link's dropped jaw, the Gerudo shrugged. "I'm the best at ranged weapons," she said factually, "and am used at hurling things over six hundred metres, so I can afford to blow some energy in power than range."

Link shook his head in awe. "I thought you were a master of only bows and stuff."

She clucked her tongue in disapproval. "Get you facts straight, kid. A jack of one trade, but master of all: that's me. Everyone runs to me for designs of your great siege ballista to the finer details in crafting blow darts. I make them all and likewise know them all." Smirking, she walked off to grab another wooden javelin before tossing it into the pile. "A javelin is meant to take down a man in armour: you've seen me use it in a method that would shear an entire party into half. Three javelins, remember."

-

Malik blearily awoke to a great pain in his waist. Strange, he thought, a blow to the head should be causing pain to the head. The migraine chose then to show its presence, Malik frowning as it rolled rapidly out of its hiding spot Goddess-knows-where to pummel him with full severity.

Glimpsing down explained why his waist was hurting so much. On one side, a bunch of shorties were poking him continuously, unaware that he was already awake. On the other side, Reza was biding her time by sewing on a pair of askew fairy wings, putting little attention to whether she was pricking Malik or not.

"Pain, pain, stop it please oh the pain," he moaned out, waving away the little madmen and whacking Reza's hand. She sighed disappointedly, generous enough to take out the needle but not kind enough to apologise.

"I remember a time when you wrote on that bloke that you liked fish," Reza commented suddenly, turning around to hunt in a little drawer. Malik took that time to check his waist, frowning at the tiny little scratches from her needle that were thankfully only superficial. He tried batting off the wings, but her stitching was strong enough to resist that.

"You might find interest that fish will be your dinner tonight – now where did I put it – and this time won't be stuffed with chillies," Reza grunted, the sound of shifting against wood pervading. Malik this time tried ripping them off, but coupling their awkward position of rubbing against his armpit and his fear of damaging his own cloth, it wasn't that successful either.

"Ah! Found it! You also might be glad that while your resemblance to a fish is lacking, at least you got the appropriate scaling." Gleefully she brandished a mirror right up to his face.

It was too close for his to see his whole visage, but he didn't need to. From what the mirror told, stamped onto his forehead was the scaling of that monster of a fish, the imprint continuing down past his eyes and ending near the tip of his nose. "Aw, great." Malik moaned, rubbing his head. "Oh, how I needed this right now."

"I'm glad you like it." Reza said a bit too cheerfully for his liking.

"I was being sarcastic." Malik growled unhappily, staring angrily at Reza.

She returned her own glare, her smile never leaving her face. "So was I."

At his groan of 'ungh' and flop back to his bed she cackled incessantly, delighting in his depression. "If you want to take off those charming little wings, there should be a pair of scissors a corridor right and three rooms left for you to snip the strings." With a malicious smile, she bowed before leaving the room, her laugh continuing down the hallway.

Malik groaned, still rubbing his forehead. He hated the Gerudos, most of all Reza. Them and their twisted sense of humour and their strange names. Who would call their child something as odd as Maira V-something or Reza, anyway?

Outside Reza was glad of the time of day; should Malik choose to exit within the following hour there would be at least thirty people who would see him in his deformed costume. A quick look outside showed that she had roughly three hours to train before the sun set and she has to go in for dinner.

Her path to the training ground led her past a couple of women training with their crossbows. Heavier and deadlier than the normal bow, they also had the small problem of needing a lot of time to reload and so the troupe were working through a routine to make sure they kept up a continuous salvo of bolts.

Reza frowned slightly. Unlike the bow, no skill was needed to handle a crossbow – unless you considered aiming a skill, not a talent – meaning that while it was good in the sense that even the younger fighters could donate, Reza felt that it might override the days of the good old fashioned composite bow, meaning that the skills would be dead forever. At present everyone could still use a bow, but what about fifty years in the future? What then?

She waved the matters off quickly enough, drowning her small troubles in routine. Usually she trained with her dual scimitars, but today was the glaive. It was a familiar weight in her hands, everyone training with this weapon first before anything else. Nonetheless years with the lack of practice made it ungainly compared to her usual weapons, something she was determined to flatten out.

"Caring to learn how to fight on horseback?" A voice popped out of nowhere. Surprised Reza used her glaive as a vault pole to catapult herself over and put the weapon in between her and the sound. The person was cloaked in the shadows, making her face indiscernible. Not that Reza needed to see her face to tell who she was: very few people could sneak up on her and less of them had their hair worn long.

"Good evening, Nabooru." Reza greeted formally, pulling back the glaive and nodding respectfully. "Why'd you ask about horseback fighting?"

Nabooru laughed, leaning against the wall. "You haven't been away for long, but already all guards have replaced the glaive for the scimitars. Now only those who want to join the ranks of the cavalry stay with the glaive." She walked to a weapon rack, holding up one glaive and glancing at it admirably. "Are you still good at it?"

Reza shook her head. "I've become quite rusty, truth be told." She admitted, attempting to spin it above her head and failing. "I'll leave you to your practice in solitude."

"Stay a while sister, I didn't come here to practice." Nabooru waved Reza's bow off. "I was actually hunting around for Link, and since I passed you first I thought it might be easier to ask you than run around the remaining half of the Fortress." She placed her glaive back to its rack, choosing to play with the long pike instead.

Reza raised her eyebrow at Nabooru's choice of weapon. Being slightly less than three metres, there wasn't much you could do with it except for jab forward. "Sorry, haven't seen Link for a while. Last time I was with him he was heading off to get a new bow – maybe he's still there."

What Nabooru did contradicted sane action. Instead of doing Reza's expected thrusts and quick lances, she instead hefted it above her shoulder and threw it like a javelin. "In the big picture, this pike would have been a splinter. What everyone needs to learn is how to land that splinter in the enemy's eye." With a wave Nabooru left, heading off to find Link.

Now that she had a general direction to head off to, it didn't take long to find him. In the irony of life she also found him tossing javelins, although not as effectively as she would have expected. Littering the field in front of him were sticks, and nearly all the javelins lodged deep into them.

"I don't think Achika likes you." Nabooru commented. "She never made anyone do this to get a bow."

Link nodded, staring at the last javelin he had in his hand. So far he managed to land two in the red patch, but with twelve everywhere else. He could always get Nabooru to pull her authority and make that lady make him a bow whether this got in or not, but it might be of lesser quality. "I don't see what's the point of doing this. How practical is a javelin in a battle, anyway?"

Nabooru shrugged. "It's best against armoured foes, especially those on horseback. If it doesn't spear them outright, it would either bounce up or down. Up equals bruise and shattered neck, down equals bruise and a horse with a broken spine."

"I thought you guys were nice to horses?"

"We understand the use of horses, yes." Nabooru corrected. "We also understand how useful they might be to the enemy. Like any weapon, if it's in the wrong hands it either must be taken over or eliminated. If you can suggest a way to take the reins from a very long distance, I'm sure we'll adopt it quickly."

Link rolled his eyes at her cruel logic. "Whatever. Personally a bow and a sharp eye is a heck a lot better. And I really need to get this last javelin into the red patch."

Navi buzzed irritably around Link's head. "I told you, I got the maths right! Just aim at the sun at full power and it'll fall into the red patch!" Sighing angrily she twirled, flying straight in front of Nabooru's face. "Can you believe him? 'It won't work', he says, 'I don't believe you', he says. You see? Because he doesn't believe me, he's missed more than he's gotten it right."

Link rolled his eyes. "You might have all the theory correct, Navi, but you've never actually used a ranged weapon yourself. I think my short-lived experience would serve me better."

Nabooru shrugged. "I don't know. I personally say that the chances are that magical beings like spirits and fey creatures tend to be correct most of the time. So, this is your last javelin. Your last shots haven't been all that successful by your method, have they? What do you have to lose, I say."

Navi bobbed in agreement. "I've been helping you target and aim a few years ago, remember? I know you better than you know yourself."

."Fine," Link grumbled, "I say it won't work." As he tensed up to release it with all his might, he was briefly reminded of the time when he received the fire arrows. Aiming at the sun, although today it was the setting sun rather than the rising sun. Both if done correctly would give him a prize of unquestionable value.

With a grunt he threw the javelin, watching with slight disappointment that it didn't fly as high as he expected it to do. He had to agree with Navi in that she knew him better than he himself, because like she predicted it landed slap bang in the centre of the red patch.

"Ha! Who got it right? Who got you your bow? Who just saved your backside? Who's your daddy?" Navi gloated jubilantly, ignoring the strange stares she was receiving from Link.

"Uh, you do know that you're not a guy, right?"

"Don't spoil my fun. Allow me to bathe in the wine of victory. Let me dance on the platform of success. Let me enjoy the fun in saying 'ha!'"

-

With little to do with the sun down, Malik chose to read some of the stories that the Gerudo allowed their children to indulge in. Picking a book at random from the shelf of their great library, he wandered to a table. It took him a while to turn on the gas lamp, muttering to himself about how they needed to replace the rusty switches.

Opening the book, he took the time to admire the pretty pictures that covered the front page. It had elaborate pictures of angels circling around a sword. The angels, in typical Gerudo fashion were red-haired ladies with a sheathed scimitar at their waists. What Malik found strange was that instead of their favoured scimitar sword the sword in their enveloping ring was a longsword, one with a blue hilt and a diamond encrusted where the blade met the guard. Instead of it planted in a steeple amidst the dunes of sand he would have expected, this sword glowed in its hold within marble floors and an ethereal wall. Emblazoned on its marble pedestal was the golden symbol of the Triforce, surrounded by six symbols. Malik could identify one of them from Sheikah legend.

Malik was surprised about the ancient Hylian script at the base of the image. Luckily Zelda had taught them a small bit of it, and it was enough for him to read the two words: Master Quest.

Alas it was not enough for him to read the rest of the entire script. Gingerly he turned each page, and page by page were smothered by the ancient Hylian language on one half and the Gerudo special language on the other. As he unhappily flipped the pages – and managed to count three hundred and forty two pages – the only consolation of his lack of understanding was the occasional pretty picture of not so pretty events.

Pity, it was such an interesting title too.

As he recounted the page numbers and envisioned what the images wanted him to envision: an age of horror, Sierra waltzed in probably in search for a specific book. Seeing Malik's forlorn page lifting, after checking in her book with the librarian, she sidled over to see what he was so unhappy about.

"Ah, an excellent choice. I personally recommend this book." Sierra said congenially. "I'm not sure you would be allowed to borrow it, though. You got to own a library card."

Malik nodded glumly. "Yes, those are some interesting images. Pity I can't read the text."

Sierra leafed through the pages, chuckling now and then at some joke Malik couldn't read. "If you want, tomorrow I think I could read it out to you. Damned person in charge won't give me a rest: today my job at the front ends, tomorrow my job at the nursery begins. You could just tag along while I read it out to them."

Malik scratched his head. "Thanks, but Reza will probably take the opportunity to call me babyish. Her insults can cut deep sometimes."

Sierra shrugged. "Your call. You can come if you want, or waddle around this fortress if you don't. Tell me when you're done admiring Gerudo art: I need to check that book later."

Mumbling something about thinking about it he shut the cover and slid it over to Sierra. Clicking and giving him the thumbs up, she grabbed a book quickly from a shelf, saying that was her second top preference before signing the first book out and departing.

Much like the first book, the first page was filled with pictures. Squinting his eyes he attempted to read the tiny ancient Hylian print at the bottom of the page. Muttering to himself, he racked his brains to figure out what it meant.

"… Something… mask. Ma… Mask. Eh? Ma – Jo – Ra Mask. Majora's Mask." Flipping through the pages, he sighed deeply. "Damn. Another interesting book in a different language."

He couldn't really make up his mind about Sierra. Unlike Reza, she was nice and kind to him. Like Reza, she sometimes acted ignorant and making it seems like an intentional slight against him and sincerity really sarcasm.

-

Achika wouldn't call herself old, and will teach anyone who called her that the true meaning of hot sand. She had seen many things from the birth of Ganondorf to the senility of Maira number… something. She had of course seen other people pass her test of spears, but not one with such an incredibly poor aim.

When Link said he was a newbie, she believed him. She just couldn't believe he was that bad – a javelin somehow managed to plunge itself wrong way round into the ground a few metres to his left. Somehow he managed to progress from such an appalling aim into successfully getting the required three into the red circle.

"Well, I hate to admit to this, but no matter how god awful you might be, you somehow had enough divine luck to make you pass my test barely." She grunted approvingly, although it was hard for Link to hear whether she was being acerbic or not. "Now just tell me your minimum requirements and I'll see how well I can make it."

Link smiled gratefully. "Well, the first obvious thing is that I need it for a left-hander, and while small enough for me right now big enough to allow for a bigger hand later on. The wood or whatever you're using needs to be able to keep working with fairly often bursts of heat near it as well as freezing cold. It also shouldn't shrivel at light magic too."

Achika gave him a strange stare. "I think I can build to that. Anything else, or can I go to work now?"

Link pondered his next request. "If it's possible, can you make it so that the whole thing can take a continuous string of shocks, like if I keep shooting rapidly for a few minutes? That should prevent it from breaking like last time."

She shrugged. "I don't know, I never tested my materials to see how durable they were to that type of stress. If you can find someone to enchant the bow, I'll put a special core into the handle to store the magic."

After taking a few measurements of his thumb, hand span, wrist width and length from middle knuckle to elbow and shoulder she waved him off, telling him to come back in a few days for a bit of testing.

"That was easy," Navi said after they parted with Nabooru, "hopefully Gerudo craftsmanship is close enough to our own."

"Easy for you, the most you would have felt was a headache," Link complained, "my arm is killing me right now. I wonder what Nabooru wants to say to us tomorrow."

"Maybe she's come to say that they've found your dandruff covering their prized possessions and want to interrogate you?" At Link's incredulous stare, she rolled her eyes. "It's a joke, can't you tell?"

"No, quite frankly, I can't."

-

At the bridge post, people thanked the strength stored behind crossbows. Bolt after bolt they fired, hoping to push back the slow swarm of Stalfos that tried to cross the bridge. With twenty people firing away in turns, it appeared that they would be able to hold them back for tonight at least. Skulls splintered apart as each bolt crashed violently into it, but the piling skeletons were making it harder for those at the post to shoot the Stalfos' behind.

It was quite a surprise when they found that they didn't have any more bolts. Frightened, a decision had to be made: abandon the post and run, or fight and pray that you survive. They were among the proud race of the Gerudo, and given this case of fight or flight, they picked fight.

With a yell they all jumped out, scimitars shining in the moonlight. The Stalfos were caught by surprise and so fell quickly, but the surprise quickly wore off. Where a wall of spinning blades would have gutted apart entire lines, now they had to cast that tactic aside and fight one to one, and if lucky two on one.

They weren't that lucky. With the time it took to dispatch one, slowly more and more skeletons approached to engage them in battle, slowly they gave ground. When it appeared that they wouldn't be able to defeat them all, another decision was hit.

The young ones ran back to the post, discarding their scimitars for axes and torches. In a brave attempt to buy time, the older Gerudo made the suicidal choice of spinning forward, turning blade and body into twirling razors. Finally when the energy ran out and they were forced to stop, they all scrambled back to the bridge where the others were working on chopping it down.

One Gerudo kissed her weapon, praying for Din's guidance before throwing it, the spinning sword knocking off a skull and plunging deep into the next. As everyone threw their weapons to take down as many as possible, the last rope was cut, the last beam shattered.

"You won't be getting past this, hopefully." One guard muttered, kneeling down in prayer. As they heard the angry chitter on the other side, Stalfos piling by the side, it was now time to head back to the Fortress and alert the others to the news. They were lucky no one died today from the Stalfos.

They would be lucky if they got past the desert perils unarmed, unharmed.

-

Nabooru watched the moon rise past her window, flipping the little coin that she wished for Link to keep near. She had actually considered giving him a medallion much like the other time, but unlike last time he wouldn't have stored them in goddess-knows-where and wearing six medallions would be a bit strange. She then considered giving him a badge he could knit onto his shirt, but contrary to popular belief he did not only wear one shirt.

So her final decision was something he could keep in his wallet. Powering it with a little amount of her specialised magic she felt it echo it back to her, proving that it worked. Sighing she gazed outside, staring past the desert sands.

"Why are you here, darkened souls?" Nabooru whispered, "What is it that binds you to our realm? Release your shackles of fury and drop those chains of hate. Who have you pledged vengeance against? What is your business deep in the sands? What force seals your soul here?" As expected, there was no response from the desert. "As if something that has been twisted and defiled to become a Stalfos can still reason."

Earlier on Link asked whether he could go to the Spirit Temple to commune for a bit of knowledge on weapon forging. When she asked why he would need her permission his answer was that she might be suspicious if she suddenly felt a summoning that she didn't know about and she might not be so happy if he got the wrong spirit.

That brought up a very good point: what would happen if he does get the wrong spirit? With something darkening the intentions of most wandering souls, the chances were anyone he would call upon would be very nasty and vent its annoyance on the closest construct: the Gerudo Fortress. Nabooru wasn't sure if she had the time in her schedule to hang around and regulate everything that happened, but if she didn't then Link won't be able to learn whatever was needed, and if that worked against his creation of the Second Seal.

Nabooru was a smart woman, and decisions between two choices were her best quality. Standing up she raised her enchanted coin up so that the moon made a silver halo around it. Smirking slightly she resorted to her best decision-maker: coin flipping.

"Huh, looks like my schedule needs a little tweaking." She muttered to herself. She paused, remembering talking to oneself is a sign of madness. Shrugging her shoulders, who was there to hear her do it? "A Second Seal, eh? What's wrong with the first seal? I thought we were doing a pretty good job maintaining it. I think Link mentioned something about needing some type of filter, I can't remember. Ah well, if the Goddesses demand one made, who am I to argue?"

Nabooru was not really a religious lady, despite her job as one of the Goddesses' appointed retainer. Her belief was that if you'll be punished for not praying, then they are not worth praying to. But now, with such calamities slowly appearing, a bit of prayer wouldn't do any harm.

"Hey Din, listening or not, I'm still going to talk to you." A rather unnatural start to a prayer, but Nabooru believed they enjoyed a bit of spice in their prayers. "You've seen the problems arising around Hyrule. The protection you made for us: the open desert has managed to keep us safe, but I really got to question for how long? I'm not asking you for any major miracles – although kicking out all the demons would be a plus – just that if you can spare any help, I'm sure all of your creations would thank you for it."

A prayer for the night, a call of faith for the day. To tackle the problems in the dark, and face the new ones in the light. She'll see what has been thrown her way in the morning.

-

Malik yawned, unhappy that he couldn't scratch his itch with so many people around. Most of them were less than five years old, but the younger a child is the more apt she is to talk – and what Malik doesn't need is people hearing of him scratching down there.

Gerudo mentality was strange – who woke up the children at six in the morning just to tell a story? Like every decent human being Malik enjoyed sleeping in, but no… too much sleep is for wimps in this part of the world. As is a comfortable bed. And proper insulation – sweet mother of heaven the night was cold.

Sierra was busy trying to get one little girl from chewing her companion's arm and at the same time shrugging off a child from her leg. Being as short as she was, she was doing a very good job at either, but there was progress at least.

When she managed to get everyone to settle down, she flipped out a notebook first. If Malik could have seen the contents he would have seen her scribble in how much of a nuisance certain kids were and how much their respective parents owed her, but he didn't, thinking she was trying to tick off her day.

"Now, to the story. Today I will tell you the tale of the Master Quest, and contrary to some of your beliefs it's not a story that ends with a happy ending. I know a few of you see Nabooru laugh when she translated it, but it's not a comedy." Sierra warned, waving her finger at a few cheerful faces. "The story is dark, where the top ruler is not any monarch or leader but fear. It is about how a lone child, abandoned by his parents and ostracised by his peers, suffers through the cruelty of human nature to save them. It is about his dilemmas and questions of faith as he struggles against the mighty forces pitted against him. It is about his eventual success embittered by failure as he completes the Master Quest."

Wow, if that was an introduction Malik couldn't wait to hear what the main content was. He enjoyed a few tragedies now and then, and this sounded like a really decent one.

Turning the page, Sierra cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. Seeing someone trying to crawl away she placed the book down, placed the kid back to her rightful spot and placed her parent's name into her notebook. "The story starts in a forest, far away. This isn't a pretty forest though: the plants themselves compete viciously for the little light smothered by the smoky clouds above, some turning to carnivorous habits to remain alive. The animals have grown quick to adapt to the deadly foliage, in turn gaining razor-like beaks, or claws, or teeth that not only are good in wrestling free from the flora but excellent in shredding other fauna. The trees have learnt how to coat their leaves in special poisons that would kill others but its own kind, and their roots grow far and entangled, in hopes of snaring an unwary visitor to snag and lurch into the ground where it can digest it in peace.

"The enchantments of this vile place are even viler, for anyone who takes their eyes away from the road are certain to get lost. Any fool that lingers for too long will always get eaten by the patrolling creatures and their skeletons will be animated into senseless beings caught in undeath. To scream in fear and folly is to excite the spirits that cast these spells, their enjoyment of torment undying and never-ending." Sierra looked up briefly to see how well she caught her audiences' attention. Not only was this an excellent way for her to practice her vocabulary, but it teaches words to children who don't know how to speak yet.

"Somehow a village exists within this twisted maze of trees and teeth, its inhabitants sealed by a slightly different enchantment. They will remain forever young, small and weak and for eternity unable to defend them properly, and their immortality hated as for every day that exists they will have to suffer fear and worry as their defences barely keep them safe. They are accompanied by beings with a similar form but much smaller and with wings, but from disease that targets them whilst in the womb they cannot fly. Angry at the injustice some tear off their wings and so bleed to death, the rest resigned to their fate and live bitterly with their child companions."

Her story was cut short when a Gerudo entered the room, whispered something into her ear before rushing out. Frowning heavily, she muttered how life was becoming like the stories. "Hey Malik, it appears you'll be stuck with us for a while. I got to go now – you go entertain the little tykes."

"What? I can't leave? What's going on?" Startled Malik sat up quickly, accidentally knocking his chair down. The noise surprised a nearby little girl, sending her into tears. Not knowing whether to run off for more information or comfort the little girl, he spent most of the time just standing still and frantically looking back and forth at the door and the girl.

His desperation was relieved as an adult finally entered the room, shooing him off with "you're pathetic – go wander around where you'll be less of an annoyance", and somehow he was grateful for that. Running off to find someone nice enough to tell him what's going on, he bumped into Link.

"Oopssorryaboutthat – HeyLinkwhat'sgoingondoyouknow?" He asked quickly.

"Whoa, slow down! In all this bustle, what did you say?" Navi said, trying to placate Malik.

"Some lady just popped in and whispered something to Sierra, and then Sierra said about how I would be sticking around even longer. What happened?"

"Ah." Navi muttered. "Forgot you didn't like this place."

"Remembered how you were wary of crossing the bridge a while ago?" Link started, waiting for Malik's hesitant nod. "Well, I was right in that it was strongly built, but you were right in the sense that it could collapse easily. Somewhere in its design it was meant to be snapped if there ever was a situation that required it." Link sighed, grimacing. "That situation happened yesterday night."

Malik pouted. "So we're stuck here?"

"Looks like it."

"Bummer. What happened?"

Navi chose to explain this time. "The Stalfos came in larger numbers than usual, so many that the post ran out of bolts before the Stalfos ran out of soldiers. Since unlike the skeletons the Gerudo can't keep fighting without tiring at some point, they had to cut the bridge to prevent them from pouring over into this side of the desert."

Reza walked by, a deep frown planted onto her face. "This is going to be quite tricky." She grumbled, "trade is going to be near impossible now. We're going to have to fix this mess within two weeks."

"What happens if we don't?" Navi asked.

"We starve."

-

"I cannot stress the importance that you do not lose this." Nabooru warned, although it didn't look so 'stressed' as she kept trying magic tricks with the coin, palming and flipping it. "And hey! Out of your ear! But being serious, this does hold a bit of my powers, and I'll be really ticked off if any old coot manages to draw from it. The other sages will give you a similar coin as well, so at some point you're going to have to travel around to find them. Not too hard, with your ocarina teleporting trick."

Link nodded. "True, but I'm not sure that warp songs will carry other people with me. Navi already knows the number of times I did it wrong and left her behind." Navi pouted in remembrance, kicking Link's ear for reminding her.

Nabooru shrugged. "Whatever. Let's just head off to the Spirit Temple for you to do your stuff. Try and be quick about it, alright? I have other important matters to attend to."

Despite her wishing to make the trip quick, she kept her pace leisurely as they walked to the Temple. Link believed she was thinking on how to fix this new mess, but now and then her face would break up into a chuckle before she resumed her solemn look, gazing off into the distance. A strange woman, he could call her that.

When they were setting up their preparations, Nabooru was busy in feeling the vibes that the entire place was giving out. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as when Ganondorf controlled all of Hyrule, but there was still that presence of… discord that just seemed to radiate off the walls.

As Link was done setting the things out, Nabooru took a quick look at all the items before giving him the go: a spirit capture jar, a protective net and a mat with ancient runes inscribed on it in a binding ring. The spirits might hate them and haunt them forever, but better that than being possessed.

The spirit plane, Link believed, was connected deeply with the astral plane. Heck, sometimes he made the mistake of confusing one for the other. Mana lines flowed deep through one world, and for some strange reason were mirrored in every other one. So by somehow searching through the lines and reflecting it, Link knew he would be able to send his message over.

"Just to be on the safe side," Nabooru said, "how do you usually do this stuff?"

"It's pretty much me sending out a message, specifying for a specific type of people and then picking one from all those that respond."

"Ah, I see." She nodded. "So what're you going to search for?"

"Vaguely along the lines of anyone with a lot of forging experience, really."

She sighed, shaking her head. "I highly suggest against that. I do remember Ganondorf teaching me your method once, and when I did something that hazy I got the bad guy, alongside bad consequences. Probably you'll catch some nasty spirit that tries to hammer your soul into a rune weapon. I believe asking for someone with knowledge on metal sword forging – metal and sword important – rather than someone that has done it will get a better result."

Link shrugged. She had the experience. As she gave him the thumbs up for preparation he closed his eyes, allowing his own mana to ebb out and feel around the Spirit Temple. Much like the Forest Temple, this area had many mana lines flowing through the ground, making the connection much easier. Casting his message through the spirit plane, he could feel it echo back to him: with one answer.

It was a blessing and a curse to only get one spiritual response. While it made it very easy on who to choose, it meant that you weren't spoilt for choice, and the sole response might not be what you wished for. Link accepted the spirit's answer, weaving his mana into a gate into the real world.

Opening his eyes was to see your stereotyped 'Death' ghost floating in the protective ring. Wearing an ethereal hooded cloak and carrying around a scythe, the only visible skin was the ghosts' hands, his face hidden deep in its shadows.

"Good day, summoner," the spirit greeted, "I am wondering why someone with your skills is not already rich enough to hire a good smith yourself."

"I got to do the forging myself." Link answered. "Do you have any hints that you can give me?"

The spirit shook his head. "Sorry, nope. I know nothing about such a menial task. Me, my trade is shelving books – pretty much what I had been doing nearly all my life. Saddening tale, isn't it?"

Link glanced at Nabooru, who shrugged back. "So why did you respond?"

The spirit laughed. "My dear boy, your request was for someone with knowledge. I told you all my life I have been shelving books, but if you had let me prattle on for longer I would have told you I also shelve books in death. I am the most dedicated librarian alive – dead, sorry – and while I don't have the knowledge you want, I know where to get it."

"Ah." That posed an interesting problem. "I don't suppose you could lend me the book then?" How does one give something without substance to someone else in a totally different world?

The ghost hummed for a while. When it was apparent it was trying to hum a song Link coughed irritably, the ghost snapped back to attention. "Tell you what, kid: I'm sure you heard of the Master Quest. You have the book here, and looking back through time shows it was read sometime today."

"Eh?"

"Kids these days: I swear more and more are getting illiterate. This is a little game to amuse myself and make your entire summoning worth responding to. I'll send you through the Master Quest, is pretty much your life experiences made worse, and if you pass I'll stuff all the weapon information in the books into your head and leave it for you to shake off what you don't need."

Link looked at the ghost warily. "Alright, and how long will I be in this Master Quest?"

"Only a night, if you do it right. It'll be done in your sleep, so considerable am I, and all those years will be crammed into only ten hours. Once you pass the Master Quest, I give you information."

"What do you get in return?"

"Fun."

"And what if I fail."

The ghost started humming again, but it was blending with dark chuckling. "If, you fail, you will sleep for one more night and retry the Master Quest again. Each retry means you will lose all recollection of all previous attempts and a small bit of your real memories. If you're good, you'll be unconscious for only one night. If you're absolutely hopeless, it'll be a couple of months. No backing out, you see – resigning is no fun at all."

Link looked at Navi, his eyes questioning her for her idea. "Nothing to lose, Link." She replied quietly. Sighing and hoping he wasn't making a mistake, he erased one letter from the protective ring, shattering the shielding altogether.

"A most excellent choice, Hero of Time." The ghost laughed malevolently, cackling. "Sorry, always wanted to do that. Now, enjoy your sleep, if you enjoy nightmares."

As the ghost fractured into shards and dust, disappearing back to his realm, a sudden wave of weariness over took Link. Before he could say anything, he toppled onto the Temple floor, Navi fluttering down with him.

Nabooru sighed. "Damn, now I got to carry him back. You better pass, Link. From what I know about the Master Quest, you're not going to like living at all."

-

A/N: Hooty hoot hoot. Don't we all enjoy a nice twist? Later on I'll make an interlude about Link's Master Quest, but be forewarned: you've seen a taste of it, and you're probably not going to like the rest. Just me trying to attach a bit of darkness into the plot.

I'm sure a lot of you have noticed this is the first time Ruto ever talked. Or ever appeared. I really need to shift the group away from the Deserts and to the Zora Domain. Might fit it in the next chapter or so.

As usual I am grateful to all that cared to read this far and even more so to all that have reviewed. Any comments or suggestions will be accepted, and sorry to all that find this chapter lacking in any way – please post any improvements you wish to see. I know I'm not the best, but allow me to indulge in trying.

I doubt anyone finds waiting for a new chapter fun, but I hope you enjoyed this one and will like the next one equally. Signing off (has anyone played Minish Cap? I just can't seem to kill the 3rd form of the last boss – can't even scratch him), c'est moi.


	27. Snakes

A/N: Have I accomplished so little? How pitiful… Coupled with the interesting music in the background (FF6 Terra – play the game if you never did), it's quite a depressing mood. Ah…

Chapter 25: Snakes

The Chamber of Sages, a celestial hall of purity that no defilement can ever dream of reaching. The antechamber for the Sacred Realm that his hidden beneath, the Sages that were allowed to bask in its ambience usually met once a month or at great crisis.

Despite having a meeting barely two days earlier, Rauru called the other Sages, his summon veiling his desperate urgency.

Nearly all the sages were quick to the call, Saria answering first, followed by Impa and Darunia and eventually Nabooru. Rauru of course was there in the first place. In half an hour of his summon, everyone that was needed there was there.

"As you can see," Rauru said at length, "Ruto is not here."

Impa hummed. "I can hardly blame her: your call was a bit unexpected."

He shook his head, his moustache bristled in nervousness. "No, we got a different problem. Remember the demon we were talking about last time? Shakaku?"

That got everyone's attention pretty quickly. "Is he behind her attendance? Did he somehow manage to capture her?" Darunia rumbled, smashing one stony fist into the other. "I'll crush him like a Tektite if he did."

Rauru shook his head. "No, so far at least I don't think he realised any of our individual importance. It's a slightly different problem." Clearing his throat, he gestured to the eternally cascading waterfall behind them, an image of Zora Domain rippling into view. "This demon has gone for a more subtler effect. Somehow, maybe weeks ago, he planted an Octorok with a water borne disease. No one would have noticed the population rising by one, so it managed to thrive as well as it could before dying from it. That disease has been spreading, bouncing from organism to organism, and has now struck the Zoras."

Impa frowned as the image showed the white-scaled race, angry green marks splashed against their skins, their joint areas red from where the skin had crumbled away. Eyes glazed from fever and many just floating around in the exhaustion it took to stay awake, it was understandable why Ruto could not come.

"How do we know that it was him?" Saria asked, wincing at the images given.

"We don't." Rauru responded. "All I know is which Octorok suffered those symptoms first, when it happened and that such a disease hasn't been recorded before. Thankfully it doesn't seem harmful to the larger Zoras, but children might die from it without the medicine not found yet. The most logical guess is that it was deliberately cultivated and placed in the Zora Domain. I'm just presuming that it was Shakaku that did it."

Nabooru frowned in thought. "I'm just wondering what he's going to achieve by doing that. Sure, he might kill one or two people, but why go through such effort for so little results? It doesn't make much sense."

He nodded in agreement, his darkened eyes telling of worse news to come. "That's why I called you all together. Normally I would have ignored this disease outbreak – epidemics occur all the time, and eventually the Zoras will grow natural immunity to it. The real problem is this." The image in the waterfall changed drastically, clean rivers changing to blotchy and wilting swamps, pristine rock to collapsing mud and acidic soil, and from Zoras to Dark Snakemen.

Numbering in the thousands, they slithered from the swamps to the putrid soil, each one having a malicious sneer branded on their faces. The waterfall did not allow for the delivery of sound, but everyone could imagine the sounds they were making. In the distance a man with red hair blitzed around, yelling orders and continually changing the Dark Copies' formation.

"Either this guy is one heck of an opportunist," Rauru intoned solemnly, "or this is one sick scheme of his. Biological warfare, complete with the bitter irony of teaching extinction by those who are extinct."

The image slowly panned aside, drifting to the horizon where the obvious landmark of Death Mountain lay. Hurriedly it darted back down where Shakaku was gazing amusedly at it, before swerving aside, dark lances of magic chasing after it.

"I'm lucky to have gotten that close and get out unharmed," Rauru said, "but I don't think I can risk another reconnaissance attempt without being injured."

Darunia closed his eyes in thought as he crossed his arms. "I do not think I can rally the Gorons to help. We haven't been known for swimming. We could try and build a stone blockade, if we still have time." He offered, doing mental calculations of how far Death Mountain looked in that picture compared to how fast the Dark Snakemen were moving.

Nabooru rubbed her chin, her mind whirring with ideas. "The best I can do is getting some of my women to track their progress and give a few skirmish attacks. Most of them have fought these critters before, and should retain the necessary experience. I'll see whether Link will be willing to go over."

"The Sheikah are known more for subtlety and stealth than army confrontations." Impa sighed as the image replayed on the waterfall. "Our previous successful assassins have died with time, and none of them have ever faced against a demon."

"But you can make traps," Saria added quickly, "just plod whatever you guys make near the stone barrier and after it. I doubt it will whittle such a large army into nothing, but it should do some good." She quickly explained that Link told her he fought some Dark Knights once, and they had a protective veil from sunlight. Should the Dark Snakemen still hold that weakness, an incendiary trap would prove very effective.

"I'm not so sure," Nabooru argued thoughtfully, "these Dark Copies seem to be stuck on a line of improvement. They didn't seem to mind the desert heat the last time they attacked us."

Saria shrugged. "We can always hope they're some cost effective army."

-

Shakaku spat the fruit he had been biting out. He hated this country's food – flavourless and bland. He hated this country's weather – windy, hot or cold. He also hated how long it was taking to just smash it into little bits.

Nonetheless, if sixty thousand creatures made of black essence with the mindless will to keep fighting doesn't crush a race of ten thousand – that haven't been toughened by war recently – then it shouldn't be too hard to raise the numbers into the millions.

Shakaku laughed privately at that: let them fight an endless sea of darkness. Like a cliff they might resist, each wave crashing into their stone strong defences to only roll off, but like the sea the numbers were limitless, and the cliff will erode with each collision.

Directing numbers in their thousands was a very hard task to keep doing, so Shakaku fixed that problem by routinely giving everyone sharp bursts of orders and then ignoring them. If he hit a problem in the way, he would deal with it then. Best not get bogged down by details.

Suddenly a large grabbed him from the back and tossed him into the proceeding wall of Dark Snakemen. Dazed, the army stumbled around in confusion before he gave them his orders to keep going after he got up.

"You've grown weak in your frivolities," a deep voice sneered, the owner's form approaching Shakaku. "You are not fit to be called saviour."

"You caught me by surprise, is all," He responded coolly, flicking off the soil on his clothes, "I assure you: it will not work so well the next time." Shakaku's eyes narrowed threateningly, hinting that he will not be alive for the next time.

"Ha. We'll let time prove that." Snarling loathingly at the Dark Snakemen, the shadowy form shook his head in disgust. "What are you wasting resources for? You are wasting your time. I should be the one heading this attack."

"What resources?" Shakaku said defiantly, looking up to meet his… acquaintance eye to eye. "They are merely mass produced from the intangible magic that surrounds us. My necromancers and black mages can amass them in the hundreds without feeling exhaustion. You, Ay Radd, would tax our reserves too heavily to feed your army." He spat the last part out, the allegory of Ay Radd's gluttony hidden.

Ay Radd snorted in agreement, flexing his muscles before turning away. "Very well. I'll see how well you deal with your pointless assault. Succeed, and I leave you alone. Fail," briefly he turned his head, giving Shakaku a sharp toothed grin, "and I feast."

As Ay Radd departed, Shakaku released that shudder he had been holding. Ay Radd was the leader of a type of demon called a Gigas, giants that stood two times taller than the normal man and proportionally twice as wide. With two pairs of arms and a scaled tail, one Gigas alone could shake down an entire fortress and eat everyone inside. They did not need swords or weapons to be deadly, for every ounce of flesh on their skeleton could deliver a painful amount of force.

Being the leader of them, Ay Radd had an extra metre of height and the necessary strength to crush any mutiny. With over three hundred years of specialised breeding for might in arms, the Gigas Assault Rave – strategy was never needed before, and strategy would never serve them – were excellent for taking down kings cooped up in their castles and shaving big holes in front lines, but little else. Shakaku knew a resisting race would need a little bit of softening before such a force can be maximised to its full power.

Spitting at the direction he left, Shakaku turned briskly back to commanding his Dark Copy army. The presence of the Gigas meant his higher-ups were feeling some distaste with his results, and sent someone to observe him. Best not disappoint then.

-

On the third day Link woke up. Blearily he and Navi arose in unison, groggily recounting the details of that horrible dream. It didn't take long before they tried to repel the memory away.

"That's one thing I don't want to go through any more times." Link muttered, shivering at the thought. Navi nodded in agreement.

As expected, he was famished from not eating or drinking for three days. Navi didn't mind having a bit of soup either, and with vigorous zeal they headed for the kitchens. Drowning the dream – no, nightmare – in an ocean of food, Link hardly noticed the new information stored in the back of his head. He also didn't notice that all the Gerudo seemed to be in a state of discontent either.

Conveniently Malik and Reza approached while they were busy gorging themselves on black pepper crab. Mouth salivating from the heat, Link gulped a jug of water before noticing their presence.

"Good to see you two again," Navi said from her swimming pool of chilli tomato soup, "man, do we have a story to tell."

Reza glanced quickly at Malik. "So do we, but I think Nabooru is the best person to explain it."

As they strode down the hallways, Link expressed his newfound respect for monsters. "I swear the Master Quest has given me a new light to see their ruthlessness and abilities." Excitedly he explained how he had to fight off the group work of a bunch of Floor Masters. "Malik, do you remember that you said some crazy guy in Kakariko Village found out how to tame beasts? I think we're going to stop there soon."

"But not before Zora Domain." Ignoring the questioning glanced Navi and Link were shooting at her, Reza steered them towards Nabooru's strategy chamber.

If there was any worry or hurry, Nabooru didn't seem to portray that. Reclining on her raised chair (although second highest to the chair Ganondorf used to sit in), her hands were clasped in front of her mouth and she didn't stir at their entrance. If it wasn't for the large world map in front of her that she was contemplating over with little Gerudo, Goron, Sheikah figurines with many gobs of black clay clustered down south, Link wouldn't have realised things were going bad.

"Isn't this map meant for planning-"

"War? Yes. We might be encountering that too, although unluckily not on our own turf." Nabooru growled in frustration. "It's impossible to march all the way across the desert and then field and then march back."

Link frowned. "I don't think I'm getting the whole picture. What's the problem? What are those blobs?"

Nabooru sighed, referring to a chart full of statistics before adding some more blobs. "Each figurine is meant to represent around one hundred women or men. As you can see, the Gorons have approximately four hundred in fighting condition, the Sheikah nine hundred and us at seventeen hundred." She then gestured to the large mass of black blobs. "Due to how out of proportion it is, the big blobs represent five thousand and the small ones five hundred. They're a bunch of Dark Snakemen. Not too bad, if it wasn't for that they number over sixty thousand."

Navi fluttered over, examining the line and positions that Nabooru had placed all the figurines. In the back of her mind she had to really appreciate their carving skills. "So, the big army are going to walk over Hyrule Field and hit Kakariko Village?"

"A bit more south: they're off for Zora Domain." Malik answered, using a nearby tape measurer to draw the straight line from the Dark army to the waterfalls. "Nabooru said a very big bird told her had made all the Zoras sick with some illness. They are in no condition to fight back."

"How fast are they moving?" Link queried, eyes bouncing from each figure to the other.

"In four days they'll reach the entrance if unobstructed." Nabooru replied. Seeing everyone's questioning glances the explained further. "Like I said, we can't send an army over, so all that the Gerudo are doing is skirmish attacks and recon. Providing the Dark Snakemen move in a generally straight course, the Sheikah are going to litter their way with explosive traps. The Gorons are going to build a wall of stone that should delay them for a while."

Link frowned. "So, you it down. How's that going to help us? I don't think they're going to give up."

Nabooru smiled. "That's where you three – four, including you Navi – come in. Link, you have Din's Fire, and that's enough to roast a big enough hole in their ranks. I've seen you do you magic trick with Reza and Malik, and between all three of you maybe can dispose of at least half of them."

Malik stared at her wide-eyed. "You expect us to destroy an entire army? Are you out of your mind?"

"Of course not," Nabooru said in an offended tone, "only twenty or thirty thousand. The Hylian army should have sufficiently had enough time to mobilise, and since they have many men of their own it should nicely equal the numbers."

"Why don't you guys help?" Navi asked curiously, flying around the map. "Sure, you have the longest distance, but you should be able to get there in six or seven days."

"We will help," Nabooru said, taking out the figurines of Gerudo on horseback, "we'll send our cavalry over. Thankfully this would be a fairly small scale war, otherwise delivering food and rations are going to be a pain."

Link sighed. "From one form of hell to another. Life doesn't seem to get any easier, does it?"

Nabooru clucked in disagreement, deftly picking out the spirit coin from his wallet. Startled, he tried to take it back but she had already twirled out of range. "You're getting sloppy, boy. No true thief would be suffering such theft."

"I'm not a thief." Link grumbled.

"This coin is not only a way for me to mark your position," Nabooru explained, flipping it around her fingers, "but it also absorbs some of the residual spirit magic. The same is with all the other coins. Since those Dark Snakemen are pretty much 99 dark magic and 1 spirit, dispatching ten thousand or so of them is going to feed this coin with a lot of it."

"I don't see how that helps."

"Use your imagination: what can you do with magic of a hundred men? You could hoard it and store it in the coin, or you fuel it into your own system and pump yourself up, or you could use it as a weapon and crush the any later demons." She tossed the coin back to him. "I'll leave it up to you. Your horse and two others are waiting for you with a week's worth of food and water. You best move quickly."

-

It was not easy to keep the horses going at full sprint, especially when they had to ignore the lure of fresh grass and clear water. Nonetheless Epona and the other two powered on, running ceaselessly to get Link and the rest to the stone barricade in time.

Before they had left Link picked up his new bow, and although it had a slightly different feel he learnt how to use it quickly enough. Considering that it was now his main weapon unless he was willing to expend heavy amounts of energy to fuse with Navi, Nabooru had strapped two more quivers to his horse to supplement the one he had on his back. She somehow managed to scrounge up two more glass bottles for him, filling them with mana potions.

You had to bow down to Gerudo craftsmanship, a special cache made near the handle so Link could slot whatever he wanted in there. It was only big enough to store one rupee, but if that one rupee worth was two hundred rupees then the bow would be one heck of a wallet. That was her suggestion, but its real purpose was to store a magical core to imbue the bow.

As the sun set behind them, it was time to let the horses rest. Dismounting, Malik silently complained about an aching backside whilst the three horses greedily drank from the small stream nearby.

Link shuddered. "You look like an Iron Knuckle in that, except for you're a hell lot faster and with two pointy swords. Bad memories." Try fighting an axe-wielding monstrosity, as a kid with a knife and you would understand what those 'bad memories' were. Reza was busy tinkering around with some special armour; something that the armour-smiths had made that was light and easy to move around in, but just as good as wearing a wall of steel. Adjusting the straps, for her helmet, she tried a few quick flips in it.

Reza frowned, flicking her wrists experimentally. "I got to tell her about the drawbacks. First, it's not comfortable and heats and cools too quickly. Second, it's still a bit too heavy." The minor sacrifice in speed might prove disastrous in fighting, although the additional protection would be useful in tanking through a crowd.

"Are you going to wear that?" Navi said as Reza tested how quickly she could unsheathe both scimitars from the plated sheaths on her back (that had the neat trick of doubling as a shield or bludgeon weapon). "You look kind of like the Desert Colossus in the Spirit Temple if you changed all that metal into snakeskin."

Reza smiled, flattered by the compliment. She paused thoughtfully, looking intensely at the flexible plating on her gauntlets. "Good idea, Navi. I'm sure there are a few reptiles with a hide strong enough to act as any steel armour." Grabbing the notebook she stole from Sierra, out of habit she crossed out some of the debt payments before scribbling down that idea.

Malik was staying on his roost on top of his horse, experimenting with the crossbow the Gerudos lent him. With a sword at his neck, spear to his heart and claw torture weapon at his genitals they made him promise to return it the next time he visited the Desert, and any damage, imperfection, denaturing, deforming or chipping to it will be taken out on his skin.

After he gulped, twitched and carefully plied the claw weapon away and gave his oath they handed him a few more nicks and knacks, giving him two thin one-edged long knives that were assassin throat slitters but were durable to last in intense battle. Just like Link he had a new padded shirt that was better at concealing his bandoleer of throwing knives. Maybe it was a joke, but they also gave him a ritual suicide knife to tuck away behind his back in case things went awry.

Staring at the sky, Link slowly paced towards a tree and acrobatically climbed it. Resting against one of the larger boughs, he never let his gaze drop from the constellations above.

"You know, through all my troubles, I never prayed before," Link said softly to Navi who rested on his shoulder. "Throughout all the troubles, temples and Ganon himself, despite all those near death experiences and the unhappy side effect of life flashing before my eyes, I never prayed for my safety."

"So? What's your point?" Navi asked lazily, tracing the constellations with a finger. "Are you going to start now?"

"Nah, if I survived the moon crashing on me, I'll probably survive this thing. I'm not worried about my own life." He dropped his line of sight down to the three horses, which were munching away happily at the specially modified high nutrition oats. Reza was berating Malik for trying to start a fire using the Gerudo weapons given to him.

"What possible reasons are there for you to use weapons when you have a flint in your pocket?" Reza asked incredulously, checking the sides of the knife for any scarring or injury.

"There are lots of reasons," Malik answered, raising his hands to show the number of fingers he had. "There are as many reasons as hair follicles on all my fingers. Let's see… I have ten fingers, and roughly sixty per finger, so… six hundred reasons?" Malik scratched his head, trying to scrounge up six hundred reasons. "Well, for one reason, it helps checks that the blades have the capability to make sparks and therefore block an attack, it proves it can move quick enough and slice through air…"

"No, I'm more worried about them." Link said at length, gesturing down at the squabbling pair. "They haven't seen what we've seen. They haven't battled the giants I had to. I'll come out alive, but will they?"

Navi nodded gravely. "On the other hand, they've come a long way by tagging along with you. With a bit of luck, they're not going to die soon. Maybe you could pray for them."

"And what would I say?"

"A thousand blessings on my allies, and a thousand curses on my enemies. I find that strangely soothing. Bask in the aura of divine protection, and let them tremble as the heat of the Goddesses anger is turned upon them."

As Link settled into a loosened state, he drowsily drowned out Malik's reasons. "One hundred and fifteenth, it ensures my wrists are in good shape, uh… one hundred and sixteenth, it's a great check to make sure your reflexes were quick enough to stop it…"

"By Din, Malik, _shut up_!" Reza shouted, bopping him on the head. Ascertaining he would stay silent, she continued to scribble down her ideas and diagrams on the notebook. Imagining the Desert Colossus, she sketched how the skins would adequately cover as protection.

"But where can we get such tough snakes…" Reza murmured to herself, tapping her pencil in thought.

Halfway towards falling asleep, Link bolted awake, startling Navi who was snoozing on his cap. Warily he hopped off his tree, eyes darting to the corners of shadows made by the miniature fire.

"Stamp the fire out," Link whispered quickly to Malik, grabbing his bow, "we got company."

Dutifully Malik carried out his request without question and Reza tried to lead the horses quietly into the bushes. "Dark Copies? Those Snakemen?" He questioned, picking up all the weapons scattered across the floor.

"Thankfully no." Link answered as he hopped back onto his tree, Malik following him with his crossbow.

Before he could ask what, a man flew right through the hedge growth, a snapped sword in one hand. He was followed soon by a retreating figure, who had to block attacks from three Stalfos.

In the dark neither the Stalfos nor Hylians had noticed the three hidden in the tree, Navi peeking under Link's cap to avoid them from seeing her glow.

The man got up in obvious pain, tossing his broken sword aside for a knife tucked in his boot. Malik wondered whether a person could actually kill undeath with a puny thing, and as he was about to aim Link patted his bow down.

"What are people doing out here in the middle of the night?" Link whispered to him. Uncertain about Link's beliefs, Malik nodded anyway, lowering his crossbow.

Two more people ran from the same direction the other two came from, one dropping his sword to make a break for it. He didn't get very far, as a Stalfos equipped with a giant scythe hooked him back, and it was a miracle he didn't get sliced in two from the blade.

So it was four Stalfos against four Hylians, two unarmed and very willing to run away. Yet still Link didn't want to help.

"Last time I listen to you!" One figure said, dodging a strike for the knees, voice definitely female. "Your stupid ideas! 'Let's go there', you say, 'it's perfectly safe', you say. You idiot! You blithering, rat-faced, boneheaded idiot!"

"How was I supposed to know the Stalchids were so vicious?" The man repelling three Stalfos yelled back, narrowly blocking a decapitation strike.

Link had heard enough, and knew they weren't spies of Shakaku or anything like that. Nodding to Malik and Reza, he released an ice arrow to the Stalfos with the scythe, allowing the two dealing with it to get a bit more space.

"First off," Reza said as she walked into the battle scene, violently ripping through the frozen opponent, "these are not Stalchids – they're Stalfos." Quickly she turned to engage with one of the Stalfos that were triple teaming that solo man.

The crossbow fired, weighted bolt flying true to Malik's aim. Alas, Malik's aim was not true in the first place, and the lady that had shouted earlier squeaked as it whizzed by, knocking her sword out of her hands and landing deep into her partner's foot.

Link sighed after he released his second ice arrow, letting the poor man yank the bolt out and stagger away. "Leave the sniping to me." He said, nudging Malik off the tree. "Shoot once you've received a bit of target practice."

Reza hadn't taken off her armour yet, but given that the Stalfos were frozen to their spots she didn't need much in terms of speed to shred them with a well-placed Gerudo spin. One managed to break free of its icy cage, but a thrown knife into its eye ended it.

The woman sighed in relief, wiping the perspiration on her brow. "Thanks," she said gratefully to Reza, "I don't think we would have handled that well."

"Second off, what are you doing in the middle of the night?" Reza asked, ignoring the woman's gratitude. A good thing about Stalfos was that they had no blood, so she flipped them into their sheaths without wiping them clean.

"We were intending to head off to Lake Hylia to study the biology for our university project." The man said, tending to his friend who spouted curses at whoever shot his foot. "We went a bit off track though, and ended up stuck in the middle of the field."

Link hopped from his tree, like a wraith drifting over unnoticed to snatch a sword from the man. "I didn't know the university gave such quality weapons to its students." He asked suspiciously, testing the weapon's weight. In truth it was one of the worst swords he ever saw, but still it was strange to see a scholar walk around armed.

The man with the injured foot answered that. "The weapons came from the mercenaries we hired to see us over," at Link's still distrustful gaze he quickly added, "with the mysterious murder of the entrance guards, it's best to be protected. Anyway, the Stalfos caught us by surprise and slaughtered the mercenaries."

Malik bounced over, trying to yank free his knife from the Stalfos' skull. "No matter. Lake Hylia is that way." Unhelpfully he pointed off to the Kokiri Forest, Link guiding his hand towards to proper direction. "You saw how we killed those guys: freeze them and then smash them. Quick and easy."

Reza sighed, bopping Malik's head again. "Idiot, not everyone has access to magic like Link does."

The fourth man who had attempted to run away brightened at that. "Ah, magic! I always wanted to research into that! Tell me, which of you is Link? I just want to ask a few questions, one for example being how you get magic and others don't."

Link rolled his eyes. "Link is a special magician that meditates in the middle of Lake Hylia. Being our friend and all, he can summon up magic to smite our opponents. He travels a lot though, but if you're quick you'll find him meditating on the morning sun."

It wasn't too hard to see why Link wanted to keep attention away from him. She doubted they'd get any sleep tonight. "Well, enjoy your trip to Lake Hylia. Come on guys, we might as well move since we're still awake."

As Link whistled for the horses to come over, the injured man hobbled to his feet. "Wait! Are you just going to leave us?"

Malik was struck by the dilemma then. To bring the four to Lake Hylia would ensure they safe passage, but it would set them back heavily in their race to the Goron stone blockade. To head straight forward would allow them sufficient time to deal with the Dark Snakemen, but it would almost certainly guarantee the four peoples' death.

"Sorry, but we got more pressing matters." Reza said, adjusting the saddle before hopping on. "You'll find a way to manage."

The lady stared at them in angry shock. "Have you no heart that you would leave us to our deaths? What on earth could be of higher priority than saving lives?"

"Nothing," Link agreed, tucking his bow into its strap, "in the end the priority goes to how many lives you can save. In the grand scheme you're worth less." Instantly he realised how harsh his words sounded, but it was too late to take them back. Sighing at their hurt faces, he tossed them his pouch full of Deku Nuts. "Here: each time you face a Stalfos, just toss one of these at its face or feet and run for it."

With a cluck Epona trotted away, Malik and Reza following along. They would continue at a faster rate at daylight. Malik was still struck by indecision, always looking back to the four figures slowly covered by the veil of darkness and to the shadow of Death Mountain that guided them to their goal.

"We're going to have to stop at some point," Navi said when they were out of earshot, "no point fighting an army while you're still tired. The horses will need to rest eventually."

Link nodded. "Nabooru gave us some special juice that we mixed with the horses' food. It should keep them awake for another two hours. We'll let them rest after that." Slowly they assembled into single file, Link leading at a slow trot.

It was hard to resist the lure of sleep, especially with the gentle jogs from the horses rocking them into unconsciousness. It was decided that Link hold Reza's reins and Reza hold Malik's and Navi would guide Epona. Providing no one let go, the theory was that everyone could catch on a little snooze.

When Navi gently roused them two hours later, it was in the pitch darkness that they allowed the horses to nap near another great tree. After checking its sturdiness all three of them climbed onto it, Navi offering to act as a sentry while everyone got a bit more sleep. Link hopped down to make sure the horses were in a nicely protected shrubbery which would allow for a quick escape before hopping back into the tree again, hoping another three hours of sleep will properly rejuvenate everyone.

They didn't have that much sleep though, as Navi alerted them to more company. Quickly whipping out his bow, everyone peered into the distance in expectation. It only was the four people from before, two of them helping the injured man walk.

"By Farore not them again." Link swore, rubbing his eyes wearily. "I thought I gave them my Deku Nuts."

Navi darted back into Link's cap as they came closer, the woman leading confidently. Standing up to make his position more obvious Link called out, "What do you want this time? Lake Hylia is the opposite direction."

"We were calculating on your kindness that you would allow us to tag along to your destination where we might either find more mercenaries to hire or pay you guys instead to bring us to Lake Hylia." The woman replied loudly, earning a hushing sound from Reza. In a quieter tone, she added, "That is if you don't mind."

Link muttered to himself about nuisances. "I mind. I'll even pay you to leave us alone." Without care he tossed his wallet to their feet, forgetting that he had five hundred rupees inside.

One of the men grabbed it and tossed it back. "We don't want money, just help." He pleaded, gesturing to his friend. "The Stalfos attack has made us leave behind our food and water, and my friend needs some medication for his injury. Please, we only need a bit of help to reach Lake Hylia safely, and we're willing to wait for you to finish your business."

"I did injure the guy." Malik said quietly, silently imploring for Link to help the four people. His conscience would not stand leaving people for dead.

Reza retorted with a sharp laugh. "And do you think dragging them into a fight is going to do them any favours? If the numbers are as bad as they might seem, we might not have enough food for ourselves to give us enough strength to keep on battling."

"I've been taught to always treat others how I want to be treated." Malik argued.

"_I've _been taught any burden has to be left behind, for to bring them along will be worse for everyone." Reza countered.

"You can't call kindness a burden!"

"You can't call battle good treatment either."

"They'll surely die if we leave them!"

"How certain are you they'll live if we bring them?"

Link sighed. The four university students stood hopefully at the base as Reza and Malik bickered softly. Why was life so complicated? Staring at the skies, he wondered what the Goddesses would suggest.

"How good are you four at fighting?" Link asked suddenly. "If you were to fight against one of Castletown's guards, how long do you think you'll last?"

The woman stared at him dubiously. "Are you crazy? We're students, not soldiers. We'll get whipped in seconds!"

Link frowned. "This… is not good then. We're going to tackle creatures that are made of nightmares, and are partly responsible for the trouble in Castletown earlier on. These are beings without mercy, and if you follow and cannot fight, you die."

Ignoring the four's sputters of disbelief, Link turned around to discuss the matter with Reza and Malik. Reza seemed intent of leaving them, and Malik was determined to leave with them.

"Think about it: they have no horses themselves, and to bring them along will slow us down incredibly." Reza argued, using reason. Frustrated at Malik's adamant pout, she decided on a compromise. "Link, how long will it take to drop them off at LonLon Ranch? Malon and Talon should be kind enough to deal with them."

Navi hopped out, her glow letting Link see the map clearly. There were faint pencil lines crossing over the whole sheet where Link drawn the quickest routes, underground passages, warp song positions, Forest travel paths and fairy fountains. They were smudged slightly and spoilt the scale somewhat, but the map was still fairly accurate. "If we move at a walking speed, it should set us back by a day. If we push it, we should be able to make it to the entrance of Zora River in time."

Everyone seemed to agree on that, so Link turned around. "Fine. We'll deal with your injured leg and then drop you off at LonLon Ranch. You guys happy with that?"

This time the university students weren't listening to him, staring in awe at Navi. "My word," the injured man breathed, "a fey folk. I never thought the myths would be true."

Link rolled his eyes. "She is Navi, magical guide for the magician Link in Lake Hylia. As you can imagine, his aim will go awry at greater distances, so she makes sure he hits each time."

"Why are you referring to yourself in third person?" Navi whispered as she floated to Link's ear. "You're not in Lake Hylia."

"Play along."

"Wow… does she really exist in this physical world, or is she a projection from the astral? I always believed fairies were the magic signatures of their true form." The man continued, blinking multiple times to make sure Navi was still there.

"The nerve," Navi grumbled, "I exist."

With Link's agreement Malik clambered down, taking the first aid kit from his horse to help the injured man. It isn't easy to work with the moonlight only, and after removing the guy's shoe he had to ask Link for some light before cold or infection set in.

"Me?" Link sighed, unwilling to show his magic in front of people who would analyse it. To keep its mystique, Link never tried to examine it like a science. "Oh, fine." When Malik had set up a suitable pile of dry wood he shot a small ball of fire, the wood catching fire quickly and burning quite happily.

"How did you do that!" the woman gasped, staring at Link hard. "Who are you? How did you do it?"

My mistake, Link said continually in his mind. Out loud, he made up the improvised story, "I'm the guardian for Link in Hylia's navigation fairy, and here to treat any sickness or injury dark magic might do to her. As a result, he has kindly lent me a bit of his powers. The name is… uh… Rope."

The man who had managed to repel three Stalfos smiled at him. By the light from the fire they could now see Link, Reza and Malik were nothing more than children, and the idea of children going to danger was soon forgotten. "You guys have very interesting names. Link and Rope, eh? Is it some sort of pattern that goes down your hierarchy or something? Does Link always send adolescents to do his work?"

Reza smirked at how easily they bought Link's story. Let's see how Link fiddles around their questions. Might as well stoke the fire. "Not children, but a whole web of old men, kids and adults, all loyalists and devoted to his designs. Some say that he pulls the real strings in the castle, although I've never seen that rumour proven." Reza answered, grinning at Link's hurt look. "The connected names are only for those close in his pantheon of power who can tap into his magic."

Link shot Reza a nasty glare, turning back to the man to nod. "I'm not meant to tell you this, but since you'll never meet them anyway I guess I can. There are others called Chain, Knit, Grip, Weave and Clasp. You'll never know who they are." Because they don't exist, Link added silently.

The woman nodded excitedly, accidentally tripping over Malik who crouched to apply the iodine to the man's wound. Apologising to him and waiting for her friend to cease screaming in pain and cursing the Goddesses for Hellfire, she quickly noted the conversation whilst adding her own remarks. "Are there any reasons for all these connection names? Is it something to do with the ties of magic throughout the world?"

How the heck was he meant to know? Link didn't even know who gave him his name. Maybe Saria. Link mentally noted to ask her about that at some point – maybe contact her in the morning or so. "What's in a name? Maybe there's a reason, maybe there isn't and it's all coincidence. Perhaps Link hides the way to his unlimited reserves of mana in all our names." He joked.

Of course, to their analytical minds they saw no joke. After Malik finished bandaging his foot with a splint to keep it fixed and forcing half a bottle of red potion down his throat, the four huddled together near the fire to try and crack the key with the names.

"Dudes, he kids." Navi said, but they didn't hear. Shrugging, she turned to Link. "So what's with the Lake Hylia and name thing?"

Link shrugged. "It's just what came over from the Master Quest. Remember, telling the truth or too much often resulted in someone's execution. I'll stamp out the habit somehow. Besides, look at them," all Navi saw were a bunch of people in heated discussion, "they're a bunch of people in heated discussion. They'll pester me to death with their scientific queries."

With the four students, Navi was unwilling to stay out and keep watch, so Malik offered to do the task. As Reza and Link nestled themselves comfortably into the trees, he gesticulated for the students to stay underneath the protective cover and close to the combating group.

"So, what's your role in this?" The man who tried to run away asked Malik casually. Sitting on top of the highest branch with the small fire's shadows covering his face, they couldn't see his expressions of worry and confusion.

"Uh, representative of the Sheikah Youth Committee?" Malik said uncertainly, finally nodded. Link's façade story was a very interesting one, and Malik had to make sure he wasn't so involved he started believing it. "All the connection names – Lock, Clasp, Rope, all of them – they usually have a few companions from Link's grand cult thing. It's not so much a cult," he added hastily, not liking the dark tones of the word, "than a collection of ideas and beliefs embodied by one person. I just happened to stumble across Li- Rope first. Or second, if you add the Gerudo over there."

The woman nodded kindly, understanding fully the non-existing hierarchy web and invented story. "So, what's with the fighting going on? Why only three of you when the great Link can crush any battle that involves his members?"

Malik glanced desperately at Link and Reza, but they were on their way to unconsciousness and would probably be angry at being wakened up. "Uh, Link doesn't like to spoil his followers. We're off to fight some large army of darkness, created by foreign demons to challenge this country." Dropping to a whisper like he was admitting to some great conspiracy, Malik said, "Those who attacked Castletown are part of this foreign army. Most people don't know it, but Link's web are trying to tackle this threat silently."

Story telling was so much fun! If it wasn't for the dark underlying tones of the story being half real, Malik could have engrossed himself in the fantasy. Malik hoped he didn't tell too much.

"This is fascinating," the injured man said, "I myself wouldn't mind joining this group of believers to see what is it about. How do you join?"

Ah. Problem. Glancing at Link, Malik was alone in inventing the conscription idea. "There are a few criteria you need to pass: never have help in the whole thing, know who to ask and what answers there are to the questions. If you have help they'll know because you answer the questions right. If you don't you answers the questions wrongly and can't enter. Knowing the examiner means you have relations and therefore have help so you're automatically disqualified. Not knowing the examiner means it'll be impossible to find him. Catch 22, you'll need extreme wit to break it." Ha! See them get through that!

The lady curled her hair in thought, nodding in appreciation. "A marvellous trap, a great way to weed out the slow-minded. I bet people with a low IQ will suffer in a cult of magic. So, how'd you break the catch?"

Malik smiled at her. "That's getting help, and if I tell you, you'll fail anyway."

She laughed at her self-inanity, slapping her thighs. "An ingenious catch. How on earth did you get pass it? You must be some genius on one level."

Ah. Bugger. Problem. Navi was dozing away as well, so he couldn't rely on her for help. "Well," Malik said uncertainly, looking to the university students as if uncomfortable with revealing his special cult's secrets, "I guess you can say everyone is a genius in one way. I'm just a professional entertainer. The Gerudo is an amazing swordswoman. Li- Rope, over there, well, he's just a part of it. To get past, you must not fail and equally not succeed. To get past, you have to be futuristic. To get past, you must be left in the past. I think that's vague enough that they'll let you pass with that." Malik himself didn't know what was coming out of his own lips, but it sounded good. At some point he'll have to write a book about this.

The rest of the night was spent in light banter among the four people whose interest kept them awake and Malik's nervousness that forced weariness back. By the time the sun peeked over the horizon, Malik had dug them into a ditch so big he doubted they'll be able to climb out without a few blunders.

"What's the name of your cult?" The man who tried to run away asked as a final question just as Link and Reza started to rouse.

"Carbon Copy." Link muttered randomly from a dream of his, and Malik took that as his answer. Parroting the two words, he sent the four into another discussion of meanings behind the name.

The rearrangements were as thus: Reza would go on foot to let the injured man ride on her horse and Epona and Malik will take some of the weight she'll carry. After Link tossed everyone a wrapped up bread and casserole mix, everyone set off at a slight angle to the original course at a brisk walk.

Link had a bad dream, and that was apparent by his sullen demeanour. The four university students were wise in staying silent in the journey, not questioning his grumpy quick pace despite how much their muscles ached from the fight of last night.

Their lunch was a slightly larger version of the earlier casserole bread mix, which they had to eat while moving at a light jog. The woman muttered a quiet protest to the pace they were moving, but a sour look of Link and a gentle admonition from Reza silenced her. The speed was tough and Link was unrelenting even though one of the student's shoes ripped. All that changed was Malik swapped positions with that person.

It was strange to be bossed around – even if he said nothing at all, just flicked his wrists in command – by a kid shorter than you. Especially since that kid seemed to not carry any equipment unlike his two peers, although the injured man wondered where he stored his bow. It was only his status in a made-up society of clandestine action that kept them from voicing defiance.

The minute LonLon Ranch came into full view Link knocked the four students off, giving them short directions and a bit of money to pay for rent, food and whatever they might need to recuperate in there. Once they had dismounted and Malik and Reza returned to their designated horses, they angled back to the original course, pushing the horses at full sprint.

"Not to be rude, but what's bugging you today?" Malik asked, pointing vaguely behind him. "That's not your usual behaviour to guests. You were nicer last night."

"Yes, you seemed to act a bit colder and harsher today," Reza agreed.

Link sighed, shaking his head apologetically. "Sorry, but it was not a very nice dream I dreamt. It was a sort of premonition about the Dark Snakemen we'll be fighting in two days. Maybe it's true, maybe it's false, but it didn't paint a pretty picture.

"I dreamt that we arrived too late. The Sheikah traps had all detonated, and they did not do enough to cripple Dark Copy army enough. It was now up to the stone boulders to hold back the Dark Snakemen, and they were clawing their way through that. By the time we arrived and were hewing away like crazy, one of them managed to breach the stone layers and the rest were pouring into Zora River in great numbers, and we were too far away to block their path.

"They then commenced in killing everything. Magic bean merchant, Octorok, Tektite, anything in their way was slashed into bits as they swarmed over by land and water. In the distance Shakaku was laughing, transforming himself into a giant anaconda to watch his army's progress. When it was now the weakened Zoras turns to repel the Dark Snakemen, they predictably didn't do too well. In a ritualistic formal manner each and everyone were butchered, the King and Ruto left for last. Their skins were pared carefully and laid in front of Kakariko and Castletown as a sign of what happens to those in the demon's way. Then Zora Domain became a place for Shakaku to pass plagues and cultivate his shadow army."

Link shook his head, banishing the imagery. "Maybe the Goddesses were giving me a glimpse of the future, or maybe it was my imagination. Either way, I'm not giving it a chance to become reality." Reza and Malik shared a glance, choosing to stay silent.

"It then went off at a tangent after that. My dream ended in the epic dual of the Dark Copies against the real Carbon Copies, a clash of the titans. From what I can remember, everything died, so I guess you can say we lost." Link scratched his head for a moment before pushing Epona a bit harder.

Navi shuddered. "You got some unhappy dreams. I had a dream I was dissecting a frog."

The travel continued in silence after that, Link's single-track target steadily but surely homing onto the area slightly south of Death Mountain. They were covering a lot of ground, and it was during their fast run did they encounter their first brush against a sole scout of the Dark army.

Neither knew the other groups existed in the beginning, but both were slowly narrowing down onto each other. Malik noticed them first writhing black splotch on the green field terrain, first thinking it was an injured person. After seeing the sharp pointy claws on its hands, however, he was quick to point it out to Link and the rest.

This Dark Snakeman was different from the usual ones, the glaring difference being its humongous size. Standing as tall as Link on Epona, it continued blithely, shredding any shrubbery that just happened to be in its way. It only noticed them when Malik made the mistake to speak loudly.

"By Nayru that thing is huge!" Slowly coiling its tail the Snakeman turned around, giving its fanged sneer to the group. As if receiving orders, it hesitated before slithering forward speedily to the group, muscular arms outstretched.

Reza wanted to dismount and fight it head on, but after narrowly escaping its claws Link suggested she would need the horse's speed to actually evade this sole Dark Snakeman.

"Why is this thing so big?" Malik cried, fumbling around with his crossbow, unused to horseback archery. The bolt was launched, but missed. "I don't think many animals grow that large for the demons to copy."

The problem with Reza's boomerang was that it didn't move very fast, and so any attempt at the Dark Snakeman would require her to get closer than safely advised to keep the time delay short enough to be avoided. The best she could was act like a distraction, using her edged boomerang to keep the Dark Snakeman from slithering after Malik or Link while they aimed at it.

"Maybe they like their scouts to shred a path for their army?" Reza shouted over her shoulder, continually urging her horse to go faster as the Dark Copy was close enough for her to hear over the clomps from the hooves. It lunged with a hiss, coiled tail vaulting it forward with sudden might. Crying in surprise she swung her scimitar, hoping to nick it before she had to swerve aside. Despite the force of it colliding against the tip of her blade, when it stopped long enough for her to get a good look at it, it was only a small cut.

Link finished his short chant and released the light arrow, the magic plunging deep past the Dark Copy's thick-scaled armour. With a loud snarl it collapsed under the attack, its claws ill suited to yanking the arrow out. Link wasted the opportunity to shoot again, believing the one arrow was enough to defeat this Snakeman. Unfortunately it got up again, now armed with the information to watch out for Link.

Its goals altered, its methods changed as well. Instead of attacking the nearest person, the scout charged straight for Link, only extending its claws if Malik or Reza got in its way. Their weapons didn't hurt it, and its main worry was Link. It moved in an evasive pattern, making it harder for Link to aim properly.

With all its energies aimed at him, not even Epona could outrun the Dark Copy. Despite Link's urges to go faster and quicker, slowly more ground was made, the Snakeman readying itself to inject its lethal venom into Epona. A feint shot by Link, the normal arrow deterring the Dark Snakeman, only saved her.

"I think you need to shoot more often," Navi suggested nervously, the sneering face of the Dark Snakeman unnerving her, "it's getting a lot closer."

"Well, time to fight a psychological fight." Chanting quickly Link released an ice arrow, and as expected the Dark Snakeman didn't bother to dodge. Surprised by the magic it didn't manage to evade the magic that slowly encased it. Letting Epona move to a safer distance, Link released salvo after salvo of light arrows, the Dark Snakeman stunned from each previous attack to deal with the next. After needlessly expending his entire reserves of mana in overkill, the scout finally fell.

"I hope none of the rest are as good as this one." Link muttered, wiping the sweat on his forehead. "No way can I deal with more of those things." Gratefully he took a swig from the green potion Malik tossed over, sighing in satisfaction when he was finished.

"Do you think we can actually fight an army of fifty thousand?" Malik asked worriedly. "I mean, if they're like that last one it would really be you fighting them and us just waiting around and biting our nails."

Reza clucked in disagreement. "We can still injure them. They were weak to blood the last time, so they should be weak to blood this time. We're just going to have to hunt a deer or something along the way."

"Do you think we have the time to go gallivanting around in search of prey?" Navi asked, floating in circles to gesticulate her point. "Hyrule Field is a big place, and I never cared to learn the migration patterns of the deer population. Nor any other animal, truth be told. It's going to take a lot of luck to even find a rabbit, and they breed like mad!"

Link nodded. "We'll rely on luck then. If one pops up in our way, we'll take it. Otherwise, we'll have to make do without it."

It was as if nature could detect the vile presence of the oncoming army, no bird twittered and no animal roamed the lands. The trees seemed to sway without wind, repulsed by the aura of blackness that accompanied the Dark army. The air was still and the only sounds were of the horses' hooves.

The horses themselves seemed more reluctant to go on the closer they got to their destination, taking more and more coaxing to take the next steps. Epona was the only one brave enough to still run forward, the other two not daring to move any faster than a trot.

It took two days more to reach the Goron blockade, but to Malik and the rest it felt like eternity. Like the axe of death hanging over their heads time flowed at different speeds, the impending doom stretched out so every agonising second was felt in full. Sleep was impossible and insomniac from anticipation they trudged on. As the dark aura grew ever stronger until it became sickening Navi thought of fleeing like when fighting Ganondorf, but her resolution to stick to Link come Hell still managed to hold itself intact.

Link had to admit, the Gorons managed to do a pretty good job. When they arrived the Gorons were still at it, piling boulder after boulder on top and behind each other, a layer at least five metres thick of solid stone finished and growing fast.

Darunia was in charge, rolling from side to side to make sure their strengths would hold no matter where the Dark Copies struck. Now and then he would bark out a command for further enforcement before climbing the scaffolds to help on the other side.

"Hey, Sworn Brother," Darunia called out from on top the boulders, "glad to see that you made it on time. When the times the Gorons are going to fight behind you, although the best we can offer is pelting them with bomb flowers."

Link smiled gratefully. "A grain of sand tips the scales. Your help will be most useful. Have the Sheikah planted their traps?"

Darunia shrugged. "We had no contact with them these past days. I'm sure Impa managed to do something though." Exhaling heavily, he gingerly descended down the wooden scaffolds. "When the time comes we'll demolish them." He said to Reza's raised eyebrow. "This act is the second hardest work the Gorons have ever done, yet some complain that building Goron City was easier as it involved digging and mining, not lifting and carrying. Nonetheless everyone is happy to help in anyway we can."

"Wow… a real Goron…" Malik said, "I never thought I would see one in my entire life. I guess the stories are true about the mountain-dwellers."

"Oh, and what does your stories say about us?" Darunia inquired cheerfully, but always keeping an eye on the construction of the blockade.

"They say you guys are rock eaters with skin no blade can pierce. If needed you guys can vomit out the rocks as molten lava and kill people that way, but that's only needed if your titanic strength does not beat them first."

Darunia laughed heartily, calling over the nearby Gorons and relayed his story over, sending them into balls of amusement. "Sorry if we treat your myths so disrespectfully, but it was worth a good laugh." Darunia rumbled in merriment. "Vomit lava, indeed. I think you have started mixing the various types of mountain dwellers."

Night approached and the Gorons rested behind their protective barrack. Naturally Link, Navi, Reza and Malik waited out exposed, patiently waiting for news from the Sheikah. With nothing better to do, Malik spent the time sharpening his knives and quickly flipping out his emotion masks, sometimes trying both simultaneously. Reza went off to check the immediate area and see whether there was some animal she could find and make use of. Link cursed himself for the stupidity of not taking a sword, and continually shuffled the bottles strapped to his belt, the quivers of arrows resting at his legs and wishing he was big enough to wear the golden gauntlets. At least that way he could crush oncoming waves by throwing boulders like they were paper aeroplanes.

Sitting at the base of the blockade, weariness was slowly overcoming Malik. Tired of the repetitive action of sharpening, cleaning and wiping all his knives he decided to take the gamble of letting Link at the top of the blockade take watch. It was pitch dark anyway, and Malik doubted he would be of much help. With a yawn he slumped down, trying to turn the hard stone and dry ground into a makeshift bed.

A very lucky act, as out of the darkness a knife flew, striking deep into the rock where Malik's left eye would have been. Startled by the sound he looked up, the hilt of the knife held solidly right above his scalp. "Oh, crud." Malik whispered to himself before rolling away hurriedly, managing to dodge a correcting shot.

A knife flying through the air made no sound, and that was why Malik had chose that as his preferred weapon. A knife cracking stone however was loud and clear, and in no time Link dropped into a crouching stance, arrow knocked and bow searching. Malik quickly grabbed his bandoleer of knives, climbing up the scaffolds.

"Bring it down! Bring it down!" Malik yelled, waking up the Gorons. Link was using the Megaton hammer to smash down the wood nearby, the loud crashing sounds alerting them to a problem. Some could read the panic in Malik's voice and reacted straight away, throwing punch after punch against the structure. The rest took a bit of time to realise it, but once they did in a few seconds there was no way for the Dark Snakemen to get over the blockade that way.

"I am impressed by your agility." An already familiar voice called from the darkness. "You have escaped ironic justice this time. Pity." The still air started to stir, dead leaves rustling into a tight spiral. Suddenly the vortex jumped right next to Link and Shakaku appeared, his face only inches away from Link's. "Hello." The glaze in his left eye did nothing to diminish his dark visage; in fact it enhanced it.

Link stumbled back, swinging at Shakaku with the hammer. He deftly jumped back, laughing. "Forgot I could do this, eh?" A sword materialised in his hands, and with a violent surge forward he slashed mercilessly at Link, the sturdiness of the hammer preventing Link from being reduced to ribbons.

Shakaku chuckled at Link's shaky defence, using his sword to flick aside a bomb thrown at him by a Goron. Malik yelped as it went off at his feet, tossed off the blockade to the side facing Hyrule Field. "I'll leave you to play with the Dark Snakemen. I have more pressing matters to deal with. Havoc to cause, castles to poison." Twiddling with a vial filled with a clear liquid, the wind stirred again, and Shakaku disappeared.

Soon the shuffling, snarling and groaning could be heard, and silhouettes blacker than night started to appear. Like a endless wall they seemed to be in immeasurable numbers, sneering beasts which absorbed all light directed at them.

"He just had to pick night time to attack, didn't he." Link complained to himself, whispering the chant needed for a light arrow.

At some invisible line the Dark Snakemen stopped, all out of reach from Link's arrows, Malik's knives and emotion auras and the waiting Gorons with the bombs ready. If any fear was felt, no one showed it.

The Dark Snakemen charged. A wave of blackness they moved as one unit, no gap in their defences shown. Before anyone could fire however, Reza appeared.

Like a tornado of steel of stormed in, blades twirling and coated with blood. When Link peered closely he could see she strapped shorter blades to her knees, and was razing through the moving surge in a deadly arc. Somehow she managed to keep the momentum to keep spinning until she could exit the crowd, then retreating quickly to the stone blockade.

Her attack had surprised the Dark army. Stunned by confusion they did little about the bombs raining down on them, but that did little damage anyway. When there was a gap in the explosions Link asked where she got the blood.

"I took a few liberties." Reza replied quickly, showing her arms that were intentionally cut. "Don't worry, I made sure it doesn't bleed so badly it impedes my abilities."

When they finally moved into range Link fired away, not needing to aim too carefully. Their formation was tight so that any move that Reza would try again would fail, but it meant that no matter where a bomb of arrow landed it would always hit something. Light arrow after light arrow he rained it upon them like the indignation of the heavens, holy might brought against the surges of darkness.

Link could not hold a static defence however. Malik might be able to ward off some of the Dark Snakemen by giving sharp bursts of emotion and make them recoil, Reza might shred any small group that got close and the Gorons could stun them all with their continuous bomb fallout, but Link's arrows could only target one Dark Copy at a time. Running along the blockade he jumped over the Goron heads, stopping now and then to release an arrow at any Dark Snakeman that got too close for comfort.

The battle reminded him somewhat of the alien invasion at Romani Ranch, where the girl recruited him to ward away the foreign invaders. What they wanted with cows she never told him, but here he knew what the Dark Snakemen wanted.

Link stopped suddenly. He knew what the Dark Snakemen wanted: entry into Zora Domain and a massacre of its contents. But what did Shakaku wanted? If he merely wished to destroy the Zoras he could use his trick to enter and in their weakened state he wouldn't even need an army.

"Havoc to cause, castles to poison."

Wait a minute, the Zoras don't have a castle. The only one was in Castletown at the end of the river…

… End of the river… Link cursed himself for his lack of insight. The Dark army was a distraction! Shakaku just wanted enough free time to poison the waters. Unfortunately the distraction was proving effective, Link caught in his position of firing like mad to stop them from creeping any closer. All Link could hope for was that Shakaku chose such a distraction because he needed a lot of time.

There was another problem with his position. To cast Din's Fire would require him to get off his perch and dig deep enough into the ranks to deal maximum damage, but if the Goron bombs did very little to harm them he did not have full faith the fire will. It will mean however that he will not be able to clamber back onto the blockade and resume his firing stance.

His decision was quickly made with the Dark Snakemen's presence were slowly wearing out Malik's endurance. Unslinging his mirror shield he jumped off the blockade, rolling to conserve momentum and driving deep into the dark mass. Focussing on casting Din's Fire as he slammed his way further in, Link could not afford to divert any attention with dealing with the scratches appearing on his back. Sealing the final weave in the magic and making sure he was at a safe distance, Link let the fires rip out.

-

Emotion magic. It was a subtle art, involving the minute intricacies of a person's mind and with a little nudging controlled within a certain radius. It involved more on delicate actions that sheer power, and required intense concentration to empower. That was why Malik chose it: for the least Sheikah shadow power you would get the most marks.

It was almost limitless in its use: Malik had once tried pummelling a cucco with various different emotions for fifteen minutes straight and didn't feel the slightest strain. However Malik had never tried targeting a larger audience for even longer durations, and the new experience was tiring him rapidly.

If it was possible to get sick of feeling happy, Malik was feeling that. The Dark Snakemen snarled as they were hurdled back by an invisible wall of joy, something they were not so joyful about. Malik himself was feeling a bit disgruntled by the irony of feeling happy to push death back, but did not dare risk swapping masks for variety in case they were not as effective.

Perhaps his weariness was visible – how you can see a person's expression through a paper mask Malik did not know – but they were trying to breach his strained wall with renewed vigour. In the beginning of the battle his emotion shield was like stone: hard, unyielding and unconquerable. Now it was like putty, soft and podgy and only its elasticity keeping the Dark Copies away.

Malik prayed for a form of salvation, and in the form of a shield bashing maniac it came.

Link's shield wasn't the sharpest tool he had available, but for its purposes it was the largest. Shoving claws and jaws aside Link plunged further in. Malik winced as he saw the Dark Snakemen turn around and slash at Link's unshielded back, but Link took no heed. When he disappeared from view Malik started to panic, but he was forced back not by the Dark Copies but by two words:

"Din's Fire!"

Malik couldn't remember many times when Link used it, but when he did he could incinerate gaping holes into the ground. With a miracle called knowledge on inertia he pivoted on his heal and dived to the ground. It was a needless safety precaution as Link had made sure he was far enough, but with the blazing heat, roaring sound and temporary star nova qualities, Malik was surprised the attack had that small a radius.

Turning his head, it wouldn't have looked like Link had doubted the powers Din bestowed upon him. A holy fire burning like an ending star it blazed out, the light surrounding and overwhelming the Dark Snakemen. With a hiss they were vaporised, dark magic shattering and spirit magic curling like smoke tendrils towards Link.

If the Dark Snakemen were known for their viciousness, it was because they weren't known for their intelligence. From Malik's point of view if he had saw a person sizzle a big hole in his army, he wouldn't quickly fill it up with more men. When Link finished gulping a mouthful of green potion, he repeated his attack, and proving their lack of brains the scorched land surrounding him was filled again.

Malik nodded gratefully when a for a few seconds the Dark Copies didn't swarm in, gesturing with his thumb that he was off to help Reza. Throwing a knife out in spite at the nearest Dark Copy he dashed off, wondering when the Gerudo cavalry will arrive. He also wondered when the Sheikah would stop hiding like sissies and help any time in the near future. The Gorons at least were doing something, even though their bombs did little else but stun.

-

Hack. Slash. Dodge. Jump. Block, spin and lunge. Retreat and back flip. Spin. Curl forwards and roll. Spin once more.

These orders didn't go through Reza's brain, but her bodied did it nonetheless. Blocking one Dark Copy with a scimitar, she slammed the other into another's gut to be held temporarily and using her free arm to add more force behind the sword, breaking past its claw defence and slicing cleanly through the rest of it. She heeled an approaching Dark Snakeman in its abdomen to bide some time to grab her other scimitar, and now rearmed returned to her Gerudo spin.

Reza had to admit, if Link didn't jump down a few seconds ago and relieve some of the pressure they were applying to her, she didn't think she would have coped so well. As more Dark Snakemen turned towards Link it loosened their ranks on her side, allowing her to dart in and out with less resistance.

Her arms were aching like mad. She didn't take anatomy as a subject and wasn't the best at medicine, so her arm cuts were a bit off and so were stinging like mad. Every blow she blocked caused them to burn, and every blow she dished out exerted heavy strain on the damaged cells.

When did Nabooru say the cavalry would arrive? In another day? Reza didn't think she could keep on fighting that long. Dragging her scimitar across one Dark Snakeman and skewering another, she took the time to wonder why they died the way they did.

There was something different this time than the last times. When a Dark Copy usually dies, it vaporises into black steam and drifts away. Today once they were killed the Dark Copy would fragment like glass, bits of it staying still before shattering into dust motes as if unworthy. A small amount would however waft over to Link. Maybe it was a trick of Link's, maybe it was a special design of these massed Dark Copies.

Reza ducked down to avoid a swipe from the nearest Dark Copy, and was saved from another one when a bomb bounced on its head. Reacting quickly she kicked its throat, ignoring how its fangs stuck out menacingly and shoved the bomb down its mouth as far as she would dare. Hopping back she admired her handiwork as the explosive ripped the Dark Copy from the inside. It looked their scales were the only defence they had.

Malik had used his emotional mask to soothe a horse, and after quickly padding it with armour he rode around on it, smashing aside the nearby Snakemen with a flail he quickly grabbed. While it was not a blood-layered weapon, its blunt swinging force was enough to cudgel the Dark Copies' craniums. He dashed apart lines of the Dark Snakemen, the forced sense of calm soothing him more than the horse. Without that he would have panicked and swung like crazy and not in his uniform elbow-wrist flicks. Spotting Reza's bleeding arms and glinting blades he directed his horse over to her direction, pummelling anything too close for comfort.

-

It was final: Link had run out of mana potions. Reserves dried out and voice hoarse from continuous casting, Link didn't think it was wise to dip into his life stores in a middle of a fight. The spirit coin was filling up tremendously with spirit magic, but Link hadn't figured out how to use it yet. Once he tried absorbing it, and like drinking acid it burnt its way through and was rejected in the end.

There was no other choice anymore. With his holy fires he had the largest group of Dark Copies surrounding him and no weapon to fight them off with. He had to try and tap into the spirit magic once more. Bracing him for the sickening sensation Link tried to suck it into his body, hoping that by doing it quickly it would hurt less.

It didn't. In the two seconds it took to drain the coin dry it felt like glass was stabbing at his head and fire burning his skin. His innards started feeling queasy and it only knowing how exposed he would be that prevented him from vomiting. In his foolish move he didn't have the time to trickle the contents out slowly: he had to remove it in the whole dump.

Body refusing the foreign magic he pointed his hand to the largest cluster of Dark Copies and released the load their direction, electricity dancing up his nerves. A faint orange bolt danced out, jumping from Snakeman to Snakeman, exterminating it and collecting more spirit magic along the way. As it bounced along the crowd it grew in force and became large enough that its presence pulled the spirit out of the Dark Copies, killing them while it travelled in a straight line.

Link cried out for it to stop when he saw where it was heading. It was not his own magic however, and would not obey his words. Dark Copies crumpling in its line of path it headed straight to an unwary Reza who stood right in its path.

With a loud crack it collided into her, smashing her past the ranks of Dark Snakemen. Screaming in pain she jolted in spasms as the magic slithered around her body and entered her through her injuries. Fingers clawing the dry soil Reza tried to back away from the lightning arcing around her, but the magic seeped into her rapidly and with a final bang her veins were now saturated with the foreign magic.

Around her the Dark Snakemen lay shattered, the spirit drained out of them from the conflagration. Reza lay on the ground, mouth opening and closing in mute screams and eyes bulging from horror. Somehow Malik's calming aura acted as a barrier and the magic bounced harmlessly off it, but Reza was not as lucky: there she lay, a broken body.

Darunia ran forward on the blockade, great worry printed on his stony expression. "Bring her over, Malik! We'll have to help her quick! She's suffering from spirit poisoning!"

Spirit poisoning. Link didn't know what that was, but it did not sound good. Sprinting through the hallway made by the spirit magic he rushed over to help Malik get Reza's limp form onto the horse and ride her to the blockade, picking up her swords as he went.

He'll have to hope that the blockade lasts for a while. Link was sure they had to deal with Reza first.

-

A/N: And an end to this chapter. I added some strange humour in now and then due to being influenced by a book called Catch-22 (go figure), a book I suggest to anyone who has time to spare.

I am the master in the shadows. I am Fate, Misfortune and Dark Destiny combined. I am the puppeteer that pulls the strings. I control life, death, rebirth and annihilation. I feel like killing a character. Who should I knock off? Ku ku ku … It's rhetorical, by the way – chances are I won't do it. But I might.

Damned computer keeps resetting to Dutch. It's annoying.

Ah well, enough ranting now. As usual, comments and constructive criticisms are welcome. Any suggested improvements will be heralded with gratitude. I know it's now a bit late, but let's spend a minute of silence in remembrance of the tsunami that struck Asia.


	28. Darkened Waters

Hmm… I have now covered two different writing styles… I wonder what it all means… Ah, what they hey.

Chapter 26: Darkened Waters

Life was tough. Zelda pulled down the brush for the final stroke, completing the calligraphy lesson for the day. She had no idea why her father wanted her to learn such a skill, but it seemed important enough for him to lengthen her learning hours into the night.

Life was dull. All she ever did was read manuscripts, learn from historical achievements and mistakes, study in the clandestine pulls and tugs of politics and broaden her knowledge on the sciences. Rarely did Impa give her a magic lesson, and the only thing to look forward to in the day was lunch. Sometimes she wished that some madman with a knife would be released to occupy her boredom, and thinking it over would slap herself for thinking such a thought.

Entertaining herself by drawing on her snoozing teacher, she wondered where Link was. Off having fun or feeling the adrenaline rush of combat, she expected. Living like a wanderer – a wanderer with very high friends, to be safe – must be a lot better than what she had now. Drifting from the dunes to the mountains, Link at least saw a lot more in terms of scenery than she did.

At a knock on the door she pulled her brush back hastily, accidentally filling one of her teacher's nostrils with ink. Eyes darting around the room, she decided to just cover his face with a warm cloth before addressing the door.

"Yes?" Zelda asked the guard, keeping the door only wide enough to allow her body to be seen. "Is there a problem?"

"Your father wanted you to be alerted to a situation further south near the Zora Domain." The guard informed. "Earlier in the morning we found the Gorons outside their mountain, building a wall of boulders. They refused to tell us what's going on. The King thought you might have a bit of insight into this matter."

Zelda's eyebrows furrowed. The Gorons rarely left Death Mountain, and when they did it was usually only one or two Gorons just to make sure their ties were still remembered. "I have no idea myself." She answered, stepping out of the room and closing the door. "I'll be off to consult my father."

This was bad. From what Darunia told them, there was very little they could do for Reza without risking messing her spirit. The load of spirit magic had contaminated hers, and now it was just rippling through her body.

"She's convulsing!" Malik cried worriedly. With the sounds of the Dark Snakemen scraping through the rock barrier on one side and her choked screams on the other, he was caught between helping his friend and warding off the Dark Copies. "This doesn't look good!"

"Of course it isn't good!" Link snapped, trying to restrain Reza from injuring herself. "Now give me a hand here in holding her down!" As Malik and Darunia lumbered forth and pinned down her limbs, Link desperately asked the Fire Sage again, "Are you sure there's nothing we can do?"

"We can't drain it out of her in fear of her own soul and no cure for spirit poisoning has ever been found. The best we can hope is that Reza can tough her way out of this."

But looking at her eyes dilate and her body thrash violently, it was clear that she wouldn't be able to do such a thing. Biting his lip, Link hardened his resolve and prayed that this will work. "Well, it's time to find one then." Placing his hand over where her heart would be, Link closed his eyes in concentration, casting his sight into her soul.

It was a mess. Unlike what he expected, her soul was smashed into many shards and were pretty much loosely glued together by the orange magic that lanced around chaotically. Enmeshed and entwined, Darunia was right: there was no filtering out the magic without damaging her.

It was hard for Malik to block out the sound of crumbling rock behind him, but he focussed on his ardent hope that Link could help. Malik wished that he knew something more substantial than emotional magic, which was hopeless in situations like these. Keeping his gaze at Reza, he wondered how they will fight without her help.

As the seconds ticked by and it looked like there was no hope, a ring of green mana shot down Link's arm into her body, and within a few seconds a messy orange ring bounced back up.

Reza jolted with each rally, her mouth opening and closing as Link performed what must have been painful surgery if she was conscious. His mana and hers shuttled back and forth across his arm, the magic slowly turning into a more defined colour with each attempt.

"What are you doing?" Darunia asked worriedly. "Have you done this before?"

"I'm… calibrating." Link murmured back, frowning from the intense concentration needed. Sending another surge of his own mana into her, he waited for the magic to echo back where he sorted it out in his own body. "I just thought of this just now."

Link was dipping dangerously close to the mana that supported his life, but disregarding it he pressed on, sending wave after wave of his power into her. Slowly she stopped thrashing around, and after what seemed to Malik as eternity Link dropped back, wiping his sweat. Concentrating for a moment he took off his shoulder guards and asked Malik to put them on Reza.

"Those should keep a blueprint of how her spirit should be organised. When she wakes up, tell her to keep on wearing them." Link said tiredly. "Navi, can you check how far the Gerudos are?" Wordlessly his fairy flew into the sky, peering into the dark distance.

"What did you mean by calibrating? Whatever you did worked." Darunia said amazed. Placing a stone palm gently on her forehead he nodded. "Your friend has stabilised. Nothing rages in her anymore."

Link grabbed a Deku Nut and tossed it over the stone barricade, letting the blinding flash and sound grate at the Dark Snakemen. "You were right. To remove the magic would have been to break her spirit. So instead I made the magic part of her spirit." Taking his pouch he flung all the contents over the barrier, smiling slightly at the irritated snarls given in response.

Navi darted back down to report her surveillance. "In this dark they're still out of my range of sight, but you might want to know that the Dark Snakemen have already shredded away half the stone wall's width."

"So quickly?" Link cried, shaking his head. "Farore I really need a break. How could they pummel away three feet of stone so fast?" Muttering curses Link stood up, wearily climbing the wall.

"And here goes the last of all my mana." Link whispered to himself. Extending his hands, he let the long stretch of string he stored shoot forth, darting out to slowly weave a web using over a kilometre of string. The tips sliced holes through the front line and punched through the soil underneath to loop around and dart back up, wrapping around a crook on the rock to aim at the ground again. When Link was done he had managed to pin the closest Dark Snakemen like strung puppets. Snarling at him, they couldn't shake their way free with the string restraining all motion.

Smiling at his accomplishment, Link belatedly remembered Shakaku and cursed. At present the Dark Snakemen didn't seem to keen to dig through their counterparts to continue breaking apart the wall, so he decided he might as well take this as an opportunity to hunt for the demon.

"Problem one partly solved, problem two to go. Well Navi, time to hunt down a demon. Do you sense any demonic magic?"

Navi stared at him. "If you didn't notice, those Dark Copies use demonic magic as their structure. Demonic magic swarms this entire place! Sorry, but you're going to need a different method to find that guy."

Why wasn't life any easier? Link believed everyone on the land would desire Zelda's cushy not-so-battle-prone life. "Fine. Is there anything opposite to demonic magic? The earth itself emanates the magic from the Goddesses. You can sense that, right?"

"Of course I can, but what are you trying to get at?" Pausing in thought, Navi brightened from realisation. Spiralling up she surveyed the lands again before yelling back to Link, "there's a patch further North where the Goddesses' magic curves around. Shakaku should be there."

Link forced his body to kick up into gear again jogging along the stonewall, heading the direction Navi pointed to. No sword, no mana, no arrows, he wondered what he was going to do if he actually met Shakaku. Probably try to avoid dying, but delay the demon so that some help could arrive.

"Have you thought this through, Link?" Navi asked. "The last time we tried fighting him we didn't exactly get very far."

"We blinded one eye of his." Link countered.

"Exactly. We: as in you, me, Reza and Malik. Now we don't have both their help in this. Have you forgotten that guy is a shape-shifter too? Do you fancy your chances fighting his giant bull form unarmed?" Navi sighed when Link shook his head. "Well, luckily you have a bit of shape-shifting power as well. The Goron form might be able to do something, or if it comes down to it the Fierce Deity."

Link used the boomerang to batter at the Dark Snakemen below, jumping to dodge their attempts to grab his legs now and then. It unfortunately didn't pack the punch Reza's version had, but it manage to irritate them and for a few seconds distract them from finding a way to break his string web. As the wall started to bend sideways to complete its protective semi-circle Link was forced to jump down and deal with the Dark Snakemen in his way.

Bobbing and weaving Link tried to sway around all the strikes aimed at him. Dropping into a crouch he vaulted forward with a kick, knocking a Dark Copy out of his way. Running over it Link grabbed an extended claw and used it to leap above and onto the Copy's head, using it as a platform to jump to another head, kicking any claws aimed at him out of the way.

"Since when were you so acrobatic?" Navi asked amusedly as Link planted his shoes into the face of one Dark Snakeman. With the ruckus he was creating the more crowded they were becoming, making it easier for him to jump around.

"Since it was required to live." Link yelped as one managed to snag his leg, tripping him up and pulling him into the dark mob. Panicking Link grabbed a nearby head and used it to pull himself back up, twisting around to get the Dark Snakeman to release his foot. He had to immediately pivot back to a proper standing position and jump to avoid getting pulled down another time. With a mighty stomp he launched himself over the swarm, rolling to absorb the landing and using the momentum to keep rolling.

The Dark Snakemen were about to go after him, but they froze for a moment before returning to figuring a way to deal with the web. Considering that they needed Shakaku to do the thinking for them, they weren't generating answers very quickly.

Hopping out of his curled shape Link continued running, feeling slightly grimy from rolling through the dust and dirt. With that feeling of incapability he tried to distract himself by concentrating on the filth from sweat and blood still in his shirt over two weeks old. Thinking about it, he didn't wash very often. Before he found it irritating that Reza always took the opportunity to wash her clothes and take a bath whenever it arose, but with the feeling of salt crystals and dried oil, maybe she had the right idea in the beginning.

"So what's your plan?" Navi asked. "You're very lucky I taught you how to fight better unarmed. If you live this encounter I think lessons in real martial arts are in order. I just hope demons have the same – or at least some – of the weaknesses all creations have."

"Remember in the desert you did an attack called 'faerie fire'? Well, what I'm hoping is that I'll delay Shakaku from doing anything. You'll just hover above and watch for the Gerudo cavalry. It'll be great if you can focus your attack on Shakaku, but I want you to use that trick to attract them over. Hopefully they can scare him off. I don't trust my ability to fight up close against some nut with a sword," Link admitted, chuckling at the thought, "so I just hope I can get away with just dodging and talking."

The ground was getting muddier, and Link was expending more energy to plough through the soft ground. Powering forward, each step made a muddled squelch as his shoes started sinking. Getting frustrated, Link decided to attach the magic artefacts that converted them into Hover boots. "How far is he?"

"Getting further. I think he noticed you're coming." Navi answered unhappily. A light nudge sent him moving again, his feet standing upon a blanket of air. "How are you so sure he hasn't poisoned the waters already?"

"I'm not. I'm just hoping he hasn't finished yet." It seemed a bit peculiar that Shakaku would run away given it was he that waltzed into a Palace full of guards. Maybe he was afraid of Link?

Link snorted at the thought. Unlikely. Maybe he was worried that Link's Megaton hammer would damage his apparatus.

"But what're you going to do if you really have to fight? If this guy chooses to become some giant ape or his previous bull form, I don't think you can really outrun it with the bunny hood. Even if he doesn't shape-shift, he's still a heck a lot taller than you." Navi muttered grimly, thinking about the possible options. "The best thing to do is make up the height and strength difference with the Fierce Deity mask."

Link shuddered. "I hope it never comes to that. The Deku Scrub, Goron and Zora transformations would make you scream in pain, but the Fierce Deity mask would scorch your nerves, but by the time the transformation is complete you'll be laughing at it." Link shook his head. "It's evil I tell you. Reza wore it once; it transformed her into a ruthless fighting machine that took a heck a lot to stop. On the times you saw me wear it, I could only take it off because I knew I wouldn't win without it on. Now it's the opposite. It seems that I lose a bit of control over it the more I use it: in Termina it wasn't that hard to turn back."

The airs started to tremble, causing Link to tumble with his Hover boots on. Tripping from the turbulent currents he somehow managed to take off the wings that gave him the ability of floating, dropping unsteadily to the ground.

A laugh erupted from everywhere, the grass dancing to its sinister mirth. Leaves wobbled up, riding on the winds before whizzing to Link like spinning blades. Fortunately there were not as sharp as their metal metaphors, but it blinded Link long enough for a leg to drive into his stomach.

Wheezing as the air was forced out of him he managed to roll with the hit, getting to his feet once he created a safe distance between him and the attacker. With the winds subsiding, it left the smirking face of Shakaku.

"You don't seem to be in as good shape as I last saw you," Shakaku clucked, his smile never leaving his face. "Perhaps you should stop with your hopeless pursuits and leave me to my inventions."

"Like hell I will," Link snarled, "why do you need to poison an entire race, for crying out loud?"

"Reasons of my own. I thought they had something I wanted, and it turned out they didn't." Shakaku gestured to the waters beside them. "The rivers that flow… They carry the debris of battle and the nourishment of life. Survival depends on the circulation of these waters in your country. I thought that another type of stream would have originated in its source. No, the only thing in your domain of fish worshippers was a fat, blubbering idiot."

Navi's eyebrows creased. Another type of stream? "What are you talking about? Why by Farore are you here?"

The demon laughed. "Why by your Goddess, you ask? By your Goddess I am here." His body flowed back into the winds to reappear closer, his fist clutching tightly around her diminutive form. "For some reasons your Gods have been given the might over time stream. For some reasons you are fools to not use it." Ignoring her struggling wings he threw her hard against the ground. "I need it, and something that comes along with it."

Looming overhead Shakaku was about to crush the life out of Navi with a final step but Link managed to scoop her up, the foot crushing down on the moist earth only. "It is a peculiar thing," Shakaku wondered thoughtfully, "why the weak have been given the best gifts. Whatever the reason is, I intend to fix it."

"And you would kill a race to get it?" Link yelled.

"Yes." This time there was no smiles.

Link's blood boiled at the answer. His eyes burned with anger as his breath seethed with rage. "You… inhumane… nothing describes you!"

"Tell me, if you were to sacrifice one life to save another, will you do it?" Shakaku asked. When Link didn't answer, he dashed forward, grabbing Link's collar and pushing his head into the river for a few seconds. "When I ask a question, you give the courtesy to answer. Now, will you do it?"

Coughing out the water, Link wrenched himself free from Shakaku's hands. "What are you talking about?"

Gone was the cruel humour and dark interest from the demon's face. It was replaced by sinister determination and sacred unholiness. "My people are dying. You call us demons because of our harsh methods and otherworldly magic. Let me tell you this, you miserable coprolite, but the harsh methods were created from the harsh environments. So harsh, nearly everyone dies.

"You fools that have fought your petty wars of succession and domination know nothing of what I speak of. You live in clear air, fresh water and rich soils. My brothers were the saviours of our country, sent to find a way to lead our people to safety. So you tell me, an epidemic against true extinction, which will you take?"

"I will take survival, but not at the expense of others!" Link roared. "You may have the principles right, but your practices are wrong. You'll never find it anyway if you kill those that know where it is!"

Shakaku barked a short laugh. "Your deities didn't pick someone with brains, I see. Tell me, how many times did you hear us call you Hero of Time? We've done our research. The Gates of Time lies somewhere, protected by the Master Sword. By some paradox of your powers you have sealed a man you call the King of Evil inside." Shakaku drew his sword, twirling it in an eerie display. "You call us demons for our otherworldly magic. Our magic means we can see past the barriers you made to seal your own, and so we talked to him. He'll lead us to the Gates."

Even caged in the Sacred Realm, Ganondorf was causing trouble. Gritting his teeth at the mess of it all, Link prepared himself to fight Shakaku. "Over my dead body."

"As much as I hate to say it, but I'll be needing you alive." Shakaku said disappointedly. "Nonetheless, reducing you to the brink of death will be most calming. A true pity you don't have a sword. I can afford to leave my apparatus for a while."

After than announcement he did not waste time mincing with words, body blurring into the air to reappear in front of Link, his sword striking out for an intestinal wound. Link had seen that trick already, and the moment Shakaku disappeared he picked a random direction and dived, sparing him from a skewering.

Shakaku turned his body to look at Link, his head tilting in thought before sweeping at Link's down form with his sword. Navi cried out in warning and Link reacted instantly by rolling in another random direction.

He skipped to his feet, grateful for Navi's presence. Shakaku seemed to be taking his time changing direction, but every other movement was done with incredible speed. Looking at Link, Shakaku smirked as he started to melt back into the winds.

Damn Link hated that trick. Eyes darting to and fro, he knew that Shakaku could appear anywhere at anytime, and he will only have a split second to react. Straining his senses, it was only the sound of the wind coalescing that gave warning.

He jumped to another random direction, but this time it was the wrong one. Appearing out of nowhere came Shakaku's fist, slamming hard into Link's side. With Link stunned from the surprise attack he kicked Link away to give space for his sword strokes.

With immense effort Link pushed aside the crackling feeling in his ribs and rolled to the side, the sword sinking deep into the ground just a few millimetres from his shirt. On the ground he gave a weak kick to Shakaku's shin, which although did near to no damage allowed Link the time to get back to his feet.

There was a pattern to Shakaku's wind trick, Link could tell. It was a guess and a feeble one at that, but it was more to go on that just random diving. Shakaku hurtled forward, sword twisting in a disembowelling motion. With a yelp Link skipped back, each footing pivoting to avoid Shakaku's following up strikes.

Navi floated nervously above, watching how Link stared furiously at the sword that danced around trying to strike him. Shakaku's face showed no expression, but his eyes glowed with malign radiance with each close cut Link encountered. Navi stared at the horizon for a moment, wondering where could help be.

"Are you sure? A battle?" Zelda frowned deeply at the news. How could there be a battle? "Not a small dispute but a full-fledged battle?" It couldn't be possible. Battles involved armies in civil war or pitting race against race. The last time she heard everyone seemed happy in peaceful bliss, and battles don't spring out overnight. "There has to be a mistake."

"Unfortunately, there definitely is no mistake." The King sighed. "Our scouts were pretty sure that they saw the Gorons throwing bombs at some moving form of blackness – it was too dark for them to see the forms clearly at a safe distance – and that they had erected a stone wall to fight behind."

All battles were big deals, and this one should have been no exception. Zelda wondered why she wasn't called by one of the Sages on this matter. Did they think she was too young for the task, and childish judgement would cloud rationality? "I had no idea there was one happening." She admitted, wringing her gloves wrung in distress.

Her father closed his eyes for a moment, the problem rolling over in his mind. He thought that dealing with the infighting twenty years ago will be the last issue he'll have to deal with, but now there was this: the Gorons against some unknown dark spectre. "Fine. I'll send a detachment of my soldiers to deal with the problem. Hopefully the Gorons can last the few hours needed for them to arrive."

Zelda nodded in agreement, but internally she found something wrong with the matter. Wouldn't the Gorons prefer fighting on the mountains, where they had the natural advantage? Why go down to the river, where they faced the risk of drowning? Why weren't the Zoras present since the battle was so close to their home?

And in the matter of the Zoras, why were they so quiet in the past few days?

If things were adding up, Zelda couldn't see the final sum.

Reza still lay prone on the ground, eyes unblinking and muscles limp. The Snakemen had decided to gut their way through their strung allies, and the entire situation was still looking grim.

The tactics had changed. From the defensive it became the delaying. Darunia had no illusions to being able keep them at bay forever. One by one the Gorons throwing bombs were called off to retreat back North.

Out of desperation Malik had set the web Link cast on fire to buy more time. As the fires ran quickly along the threads the Dark Snakemen trapped widened their jaws in an expression of pain with the fire slicing right through them.

Water didn't seem to get Reza out of her state, and neither did shaking her. Malik hoped she wouldn't remain a vegetable for the rest of her life, and continued trying to find ways to wake her up. Yelling, shaking, whispering, rocking, and passing waves of various emotions through her did nothing, but it didn't stop him from persisting.

"I think it's best if we leave this issue to Nabooru or Link." Darunia said, gently pulling Malik away. "The best thing we can do for her is take her away before the Dark Snakemen break the barrier." Following up on his advice he carefully picked up Reza's form and nodding Malik over placed her in his arms. With a quick warning of 'don't drop her' he returned to the wall to direct orders.

Reza was a lot heavier than Malik expected, and it was taking a large amount of his exhausted energy to follow Darunia's orders. His back arched from the load he took the heavy steps needed to bring them to the northern barrier and onto safety.

"They say it's rude to ask a woman's weight," Malik mused aloud, "but with you I don't have to. You eat too much, I tell you. Or maybe I eat too little. Whatever it is, I'm not moving very fast."

He sighed as he stared at her blank face, her eyes twitching now and then but remained staring off into the distance. "You know, I didn't really like you much when I met you. Too violent, that's what. Just like any typical Gerudo, I say: 'if force isn't getting you any results, you're not using enough of it'. You hit me and called me names, and if I didn't know any better I'd think you were not trying to be friends with me.

"But you were better like that than you are now. Come on, you're a strong person, a deadly bolt of magic shouldn't stop you." Malik paused and considered what he said – there was something wrong with the ring of it. "Well, okay, it will stop you. Might stop you permanently. But not for long, it shouldn't. You're the one that battles minions of evil minions, and that's something no one else has done before. No one else has survived such a shot before either, so you'll be the first for that as well." With a few pops of his spine he placed Reza against the wall to take out the cricks in his back. Without conscious control she slumped back to the ground, and it took Malik a lot of effort to get her back up and in piggy-back position.

"Ah, that's better. I can move faster now." Jumping slightly to move her weight higher up, he continued his lumbering steps. "Well, I don't know who to pray for. Should I pray for you, and your recovery, or for Link, and his safe return? I mean, if you recover any time soon we'll be able to go and help Link, but if Link returns soon he'll be able to help you. Nayru, why do decisions have to be so hard?"

Whatever the heaven's answer was, he deeply wished that he knew what Link was doing.

If Link could hear Malik's question, his answer would have been 'not well'. For the extra burst of speed he donned the bunny hood mask, but all that did was make Shakaku move faster to compensate. The demon said he wasn't going to kill Link, but as he dodged an arc to his throat it didn't seem that way.

As Shakaku paused for a breath, Link hopped back into a defensive stance. His entire body was trembling from all the blows he took from Shakaku's wind trick. His palms were gashed from when he had to grab the blade to protect other parts of his body. His knees and forearms were painted a mixture of soil and blood from all the skidding he did across the ground. Somewhere in the fight Link lost his hat, but he was more concerned about the waist wound exposed when Shakaku managed to shear off half his shirt.

At least Link learnt something. From all the battering received from the demon's teleportation, he had figured out some kinks in the spell. One thing was that Shakaku faced the same direction when he reappeared as the moment he disappeared. He could only travel in straight lines and not move around obstacles when dissolved in the wind, and his reappearance always made a low whistling sound. So far that amount of information had been enough for Link to dodge his unseen attacker, and his successful dodges were enough for Shakaku to drop his trick.

Navi floated above, high enough so she could see well enough into the distance but close enough to interfere if it came down to it. The best interference she could do probably was flying as hard as she could into Shakaku's eyes and letting out a flash, but other than buy Link a bit of time it would probably result in the demon killing her.

They were betting a lot of their hopes on the Gerudo cavalry arriving soon. If they came too late, Link would tire and all would be lost. If they couldn't fight the demon, they would die and all would be lost. The Zoras will die, the Hylians will die… the Gorons probably wouldn't be able to retreat safely and they will die too. The Sheikah citizens of Kakariko might put up a brave front, but without nearby support they will die out too.

North East Hyrule would be wiped clear of civilisation… It was not a pretty thought.

And all Navi could do about it was wait for the Gerudo to arrive. She couldn't fight. She couldn't help fight. All she could do was fly and fly and fly and fly while they fight below even though the demon's poisons wait elsewhere and just fly and fly and fly…

Her angry buzzing stopped suddenly as she considered the thought. Shakaku did say something about leaving his stuff behind, probably in the expectation he'll be done with it before anything happens. Navi might not be able to confront him directly, but maybe by that she'll do just as much damage with a subtler effect.

Peering into the night to make sure the Gerudo weren't arriving soon; she flew off to the confusion of Shakaku and Link, eyes breezing along the riverside to hunt for his items.

Shakaku paused for a moment before smirking at Link. "It looks like your little friend has figured out the outcome. She chose to run: a very wise decision. You're all on your own now. Abandoned." He brushed his red hair away from his forehead, eyes sneering at Link.

Link was not so weak that he would have fallen for that psychological attack, but it did cast an uncertainty to why she left so suddenly. She had her reasons, he resolved, and they probably will make or break this fight.

"Yes, I think she figured out the outcome." Link answered slowly. Fighting down the weariness of the prolonged dodging he managed to crack on a cocky smile, breaking from his defensive stance to stand upright. "I think you're not going to like it much either."

Mocking an armed and skilled demon while you were battered and tired might not have been a good idea, but he had to pull Shakaku's attention back into the fight before he thought about why Navi left.

"You hold great confidence in such a situation." Shakaku observed. "I'm not sure whether that is courage or lunacy. Whatever it is, it's not going to help you."

Well, might as well pull out the big guns. There was no one around that would get injured. "That won't." With a flourish he pulled out one of his masks. "This might."

Shakaku's eyes widened at the sight, and he rushed in to prevent Link from wearing the Fierce Deity mask. His moment of surprise had cost him that valuable amount of time, for just when his sword was a few centimetres away the dark god's magic took its hold; a wave of air pressure from the transformation knocking the demon away.

Shadow magic crackled around Fierce Link as he greedily sucked the mana out of the earth. The tattoos etched on his armour glowed as the magic ran through it, and with his new stature Link was standing face to face with Shakaku.

"Drawing off the powers of the Ogre God, eh?" Shakaku smirked as the helix blade warped into existence in Fierce Link's hands. "It hardly matches to the Black King, but its might is nothing to be laughed at."

Link didn't waste time with words anymore. The Fierce Deity was called the Ogre God for a reason, in its abundance of physical strength and thirst for combat. Pulling the mana to his feet he inversed the magic to propel him quickly to Shakaku. With a roar he smashed his sword against Shakaku's, the momentum driving both forward a few metres.

"I find it strange that you would only pull out such power when your friend has left. Is it because you fear it, or fear the lack of control over it?" With a deft twist Shakaku spun around Link's charge, his freed blade arcing for his back.

Fierce Link proved to be a little too fast for that trick, turning around to block the sword. "Oh shut up." He snarled, a foot darting in to deliver a painful blow. Shakaku bended out of the way, fading back into the winds.

"I wouldn't be surprised. When has a mere mortal ever mastered the rage of the Heavens, after all?" The scathing voice echoed, swirling around Link in mockery of his attempts to hunt it down. "Since I'm overfilled with redundant knowledge, let me tell you a story of that mask."

"What are you playing at?" Fierce Link roared, converting the dark magic into heat. The waves radiated off his form, rippling the air. With a surprised shout Shakaku whirled back into existence, his hair ends singed. "You talk too much for a dead man."

Shakaku took a step back in feigned shock. "By the Black King, I'm now a man, not a demon! Whatever made that change?" His face twisted back to a cruel smile when Link narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps it is for the reasons I said before: I was a demon for my otherworldly magic. I'm a man now that you use the same lore I do."

"Shut up." Fierce Link slammed his sword deep into the ground until only the handle could be seen. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" With each shout a burst of dark energy sliced out of the earth, Shakaku deftly dodging each shot.

"The Ogre God was more of a prank god," the demon said casually, examining how Link pulled the sword out to stare at him, "a nuisance, a joke, a pest. He torched cities, granted his powers to losing factions and entered war itself all for the fun of it." When Link charged, instead of the usual collision Link instead leapt into the sky, using the darkness to hide his descent. Closing his eyes Shakaku managed to dodge out of the way as the sword crushed the rock he was standing on.

"The Ogre God was weak: an insignificant deity that in comparison to the others out there only had the strength to swat a fly. The only reason he was never disposed of was that no one could catch him." Shakaku resumed the narrative, smirking at the natural fury that danced in Fierce Link's eyes. Swords crashed and splintered, but with one made of wind and the other of dark magic they continually remoulded into shape. "You see, every deity has a special gift assigned to them, usually done by what those that worship them believe they should be able to do. Your Goddesses hold mastery over time. My God rules the domains of the abyss, master of oblivion and destruction. The Ogre God carried the gift of translocation. Every time a Deity came close to disposing of him, he'll disappear, and haunt a place out of anyone's rule."

If you were a piece of poison lying around, where would you be? Navi flitted through the small hedges and tall weeds in search of Shakaku's poisons. All she knew was that one component of it was a small crystal bottle of clear liquid, but that was tiny.

No idiot would leave an item of destruction just lying around for someone to find, so she expected he hid it somewhere in the bushes. Link probably guessed correctly that setting up the poison took a long time, and Navi deduced that if it was as simply as pouring the clear stuff into the river Shakaku had no reason to still be around. So it had to be complex: it had to be big. How big she had no idea, but it definitely has to be bigger than a bottle.

Unfortunately given that no one gave a hoot about caring for the wild grass, there were so many clumps of long reeds that anyone could have hidden a small child in, let along some poisonous stuff.

"Come on, Navi, think! I don't have enough time to check them all one by one!" She berated to herself, clambering out of the thorn growth to escalate into the air and see the river below. "Shakaku is a very clever demon, I just have to use his brains against himself."

Pausing for a deep breath and to recollect her thoughts, she surveyed the types of hedges. "He would want it protected for sure, and no one accidentally stumbling across it." She reasoned, eyes selecting out the thorny and tangled growth. "Of course, in the dead of the night with battle nearby there isn't going to be that high a chance of someone passing by. So it wouldn't be a top priority." She abandoned that search, returning to skimming the grounds to see if anything reflected her glow.

"He probably believed that he wouldn't defeat Link. He said that he didn't want to kill Link. So he would have wanted to get away quickly, and that would involve picking up his poison – unless it's expendable." Navi prayed that wasn't the case. "So if it was just a bunch of glassware, it would be stored so he could just quickly grab it and leave. Such storage would probably mean some type of luggage." Spiralling back up she hunted for a place that could obscure a luggage from view. That narrowed the hunt down to fifteen tangled growths and four hedges.

"One of his tricks is his wind disappearance thingy. He travels in straight lines and creates a breeze when he returns into some shape. He'll probably use that to his advantage and use the breeze to sway the foliage away or something. So something knotted won't help him." It was a far shot, and maybe Shakaku wasn't that smart. Maybe Shakaku was even smarter and predicted that she'll be predicted him. Then again if that were the case he would probably have given up fighting Link to dispose of her. Ah yes, he already tried. Damn his size.

Four hedges. That wasn't too bad. She could deal with four hedges. Picking one at random she flew back down, examining the roots quickly for upturned soil and for bent branches. This one seemed to fit her criteria of thorny, but it didn't seem to hide the elusive poisons.

She didn't waste time heading to the second one, performing the quick check-up of its branches and roots. Nothing seemed out of order either. A furry caterpillar tried to take a bite of her wings, but that was the only thing differing this one to the first. Out of spite she set its defensive spikes on fire, hoping that in the morning some bird would swoop down and eat its unprotected body.

Two left. That didn't seem too bad. Heading for the third she examined it as well, the ground the leaves the branches and the roots. None of them seemed to give any sign of disturbance. When anxious trepidation she darted to the fourth, conducting the same check-up.

There was no sign either. Frustrated she checked and double-checked, but not a single leaf was out of place. Repeating the probabilities in her head there was no other place he could have hidden a briefcase or luggage. Examining it one more time revealed nothing more: the bush remained undisturbed, the only thing unnatural about it was the skim marks she made whizzing above the soft sand it grew in.

About to head back into the skies and think about the problem again, she stopped. It was nothing strange to see different species of bushes, but it was strange to see a desert shrub right next to a river. Looking at the sand she could see the round border where the sand ended and the grass started.

If the small breeze of her wings could move the sand, a gust from his reappearance would blow the whole thing away! Excitedly Navi plunged into the sand, scooping it away with her wings and hands. She didn't have to burrow deep to have her belief was affirmed when she finally struck a leather surface.

That posed an interesting problem. She found it. Now how did she get rid of it? Troubling over what to do with it she picked up the familiar presence of the Gerudo in the distance. Giving up on the problem temporarily she concentrated, her mind calming down into tranquillity.

And then her thoughts erupted. Like sudden gouts of fire from a volcano, information flooded back over the temporary wall of calm. In the span of a millisecond she calculated pi to the four hundred and thirty second decimal place and at the same time recited twelve nursery rhymes she learnt. With the sudden influx of thinking, it had to be expressed in its most turbulent form.

It was just a convenient miracle she cast the Faerie Fire spell right over the briefcase.

A sign of hope. That's all Malik needed. To his left three Gorons were slugging it out with seven Dark Snakemen, the scratches that scarred their bodies enraging them to pound harder and faster. To his right Darunia was sustaining a wall of fire that periodically curled into itself to launch a massive fireball at the closest Dark Copy. Behind him were the remaining Gorons, dropping short-fuse bombs to ward back the mass of darkness keen to follow them.

And to the front… the giant scout Dark Snakeman. Unlike its peers it merely waited in front of Malik, letting the Gorons ignore it. Mouth stuck in a perpetual smirk it gestured to Malik. It spoke no words, but the message was very clear.

To the death I challenge you. And the ironic thing is I'm not alive to die.

Knives against claws. Agility against raw speed. Focussed hits against enormous strength. The odds weren't playing well for Malik. He couldn't just drop Reza onto the ground and take on this oversized Dark Snakeman. And with it in his way he couldn't just loop around it. With a worried heart he gently set Reza down and pulling three throwing knives out of his bandoleer, flicked on the mask of belief. Its main purpose wasn't to boost everyone's morale. He wore it so no one could see his troubled face.

All he needed was a sign of hope.

Ahead the clouds condensed together, colour warping from the dull grey to varying shades of pink. Suddenly it dissipated, unveiling an angry torrent of reds and purples. Colours literally streaking through the sky it looked like the might of the celestial bodies directed to smite the sins beneath.

Everyone paused to look at the display. The Dark Snakemen turned around to see what was going on. The Gorons stopped in wonder.

A sign of hope. With a controlled spin and arc Malik launched the three knives with as much precision and power of his entire body against the scout's back. While everyone was still staring he launched three more before the first volley even dug in. And three more. And three more.

By the time the others realised it fifteen knives were plunged up till the hilt in the Dark Snakeman's back. The scout was dazed and definitely injured from Malik's power strikes, but not dead. With speed he never revealed before Malik almost teleported behind the Dark Copy, the momentum driving his main knife deep through the skull until the tip stuck out the other end. With a violent yank he pulled it out and the scout fell.

"A sign of hope."

Fierce Link laughed, sending a blast of dark magic at Shakaku. It shadowed into two forms, forcing the demon to dodge both. Just when he was about to remark about the pointlessness of that attack, Shakaku had to duck to avoid Link's swooping attack. "You call this weak?" He sneered.

"Relatively, yes." Shakaku smiled derisively at Link. "You know nothing about the gifts of the Black King." Almost mockingly he pulled out an amulet and twirled it around his finger. "Recognise this?"

Fierce Link remembered it all too well. The pain as it pulled the magic out of the area was beyond compare. Eyes narrowing Link took a few steps back.

"If you have it, you're a fool to not use it." Fierce Link growled, eyeing the amulet carefully. He could almost make out the miniature runes etched over its surface.

"These are expensive; I'm not to use it unless I know I'll win. You've proven to be a lot better than I thought you would, so I can't bother to use it." With a careless spin he tossed it insultingly into the air, amused at Fierce Link's fastidious tracking of its trajectory. Just before he smashed into the ground he hooked the necklace with his foot and caught it in his hand. "Besides, if you were smart enough you would and realised that I said we both use otherworldly magic. In that form it wouldn't hurt you."

What was his game? Link knew that the Hell it did. It drained magic out of the earth and no matter what form Link was in it drained magic out of him. Yet lying wouldn't achieve any ultimate purpose here.

"Nothing special." Fierce Link grunted. His eyes flicked to the distance as a smile slowly curled on his face. "You've been trying to buy yourself time. You stayed silent when you knew I was easy to defeat and you started talking to delay me when I could crush you with a blow. You were trying to buy time."

Shakaku shrugged. "Maybe I was, maybe I am. Whether I'm not, it's working. You're not attacking, are you?"

Suddenly a small storm of violet fire and lilac sparks brewed up north, a dizzying display of fey magic as Link identified it as Navi's Faerie Fire. With the mask he could already sense the Gerudo's approaching, but now Shakaku was the one wondering what was going on.

"A few years ago a portal to this world was opened." Fierce Link recited, standing erect and dissipating his helix sword. Shakaku's eyes flattened at the show of confidence. "Demons with your type of magic flooded through this portal to attack the startled Desert population. Every demon that entered was slain, however." With a flourish he gestured to the cavalry that charged past the horizon. "Hardened by the sudden attack and your brother Shukaku's assault, I present to you the slayers."

It was all hyped up of course, but given the truth in the facts Shakaku wasn't going to take any risks. "That may be so, but I can return any time to turn this into a river of Death." Shakaku clucked his tongue as he shook his head. "All you're doing is buying time for yourself."

"I would like to disagree on this point." Navi appeared out of nowhere, carrying a section of root with glass stuck to it. With a swing she threw it at Shakaku's head, where he caught it. "That was a smart trick, burying down into the sands. Unfortunately my most impressive display turned it all into glass and evaporated all the liquids inside."

Shakaku was going to mention something, but Navi cut him short. "You see the Gerudo army to the west right now. The Sheikahs have looped around to hit from the south where your backs are turned. The Hylian army will not take long to arrive. As I flew here the Gorons seemed to drop their defensive bombs to the more effective up close fighting. We're not buying time. We're keeping time."

The horseback regiment split into two, the large chunk heading south to the blockade and around twenty diverting off to meet Shakaku. With a deep frown Shakaku threw an oversized shuriken at Link before moulding back into the winds.

Fierce Link's display of overconfidence was strategically a wise one, but without his sword he could not block the spinning blade. With a grating sound it sawed through his magical armour, only stopping after an eternity of shredding the flesh beneath.

With a choked gurgle he fell to his knees, arms trembling as he wriggled it out. Magic stored inside started to escape as his blood dribbled from the gash. "Damn him," Link managed to snarl before taking the mask off. He hoped that the shape-shift would lessen the damage done. As a Gerudo jumped off her horse to run towards him, before his vision twirled away he growled out, "Damn him."

Spinning. Up became down. Left rotated into right. Then they swapped. Like a cosmic gyroscope the world twirled.

He stared blankly forward, admiring how the stars twirled in the galaxy. He was the centre of the galaxy.

"Oh for crying out loud, how did that happen?"

"It's not just him. We have her too."

"No amount of medicine is going to cure _that_. I wasn't trained for this."

"You better damned learn then."

He knew all. The phantom gave him the gift of knowledge. Not just of weapons, but of everything. He just couldn't remember much.

Obsidian was sharp. A single edge was better. Malleable spine, hard case, sharp edge. Remember that. Keep the arch. Shortened in pairs. Lengthened by its own.

"Whoa. Just missed the heart and lungs. He's one lucky kid. How did that happen?"

"Don't ask me. Ask the crying fairy."

"Okay… and the girl won't respond. What's the story with her?"

"Apparently some type of poisoning. Ask the crying boy."

A maze. He knew this maze: it was the High Mages' maze. Except for the walls were different. There was no floor and no ceiling. Darkness was the ground and blackness the sky.

The walls were mirrors. Each one reflected back different things. His Deku form, the Zora form, Goron, Fierce Deity. Some smiled. Some frowned. Some cried. Many laughed.

"Hello, what's this stuff?"

"You're the medic. You tell me."

"Looks like some type of salve. Herbal scent, unknown contents. Do you think it's healing?"

"You're the medic. You tell me."

Shikaku. Shukaku. Shakaku. Link wouldn't be surprised if there were a Shekaku and a Shokaku. He hoped not. The first two were a pain. The third was just painful.

They all seemed to favour thin arced blades and a down stroke. A counter can be made. A blade built for sidestrokes and diagonal slashes. It would tear through the flat of their swords.

"Wow. He's pretty dedicated to his fighting. How long has he been training?"

"No idea. One minute he's crying, the next fiddling with those masks, the last throwing those knives of his."

"It's pretty dangerous. He could hurt someone with them."

"I believe that is the point."

What was this? Space, earth, heaven, hell? What was it all? He saw the skies. He saw the moons. He saw the worlds. He saw everything. He saw enough.

What was all this? He wanted to be free, damnit!

So set him free!

"You're really going to feel that in the morning." A calming voice flowed gently and echoed across the abyssal walls. Link groaned and opened his eyes, receiving the bleary image of a glowing person. "Scratch that: you'll be feeling that for the rest of the year."

"What, what? Farore?" Link scrubbed his eyes, clearing them to see her sitting form. In crossed-legged position, one hand supported her chin whilst the other curled the tendrils of her hair.

"You're pretty lucky they found some of Saria's medicine." Farore commented, pointing to the scar on Link's chest. "Otherwise that probably would have gotten infected before it sealed nicely."

Link looked down, staring at the gash that started where his neckline ended and went right down halfway down his abdomen. "Ah. How long have I been out?" Link asked, tracing the gash. It had to have shattered his sternum. Dispelling how his body could have been mutilated he conjured a shirt to cover the wound.

"Technically speaking you're still out asleep. For five days you've stayed in your unconscious state, but since you've recovered well enough to talk to me, you should be up and running in no time."

Link rubbed his head. "Urgh… what hit me? I don't remember being knocked out for so long." The moment he said it he remembered. Shakaku… damn him.

"There are quite a lot of esoteric weapons in this world, but the giant shuriken he threw was a first. You're pretty lucky you were in the Fierce Deity form when you took the hit. Next time, I highly suggest you start wearing something a bit more protective than your tunic. I have no idea how you chugged away against Ganondorf with just that."

That brought up a point. "Hey, were you watching my fight with Shakaku?" Link asked.

"Not with great detail. Nayru was doing most of the observing: when you changed from the Fierce Deity back to your normal self she was able to trickle a little bit of her magic in to help you. You ought to thank her sometime. I did see enough though."

"Is what Shakaku said about the Fierce Deity true?" Link asked. Farore stayed silent for a moment, and Link pressed the question in again.

She stood up suddenly, gesturing for Link to follow. She led him towards the pool of water where he once saw the battle in the Desert. "There's a name for sources like these, but for now you only need to know that it can see into the present and the past. I can't afford to buy one that sees into the future." She chuckled at her joke before becoming serious once again. "Let me show you a time four hundred years in the past."

Picking a pebble that had been resting at the rim she skimmed it across the surface, the ripples slowly bending into shapes of buildings, people and trees.

And fire. Sitting calmly on top of the tallest house was the Fierce Deity, luxuriating in the chaos beneath. Black lightning broiled free from the clouds, striking the people that prayed for salvation. Almost lazily he swept his hand across the farm plantations in the distance, and one by one the plants withered as the soil erupted from the hidden attacks.

"A God bent on ruining lives, that was what the Ogre God was. Shakaku was right on that." Laughing cruelly at the shambles of an army set to fight against him, the Fierce Deity didn't bother to draw his insignia helix sword. His bare hands would be enough to smite them all. "There was a reason they called him fierce, in that there was no mercy in his eyes."

She tossed in another stone, showing the Fierce Deity on the run. "Yes, he was a weak god. Nayru herself could probably go toe to toe with him and come out unscathed. But like any other God, he had his worshippers. There were obviously the Ogre race, but for Hylians and the like you had nomads and pilgrims that worshipped at his shrines for safety. Most of the times he didn't listen to their calls, but the occasions he did were enough to ensure their continuous worship. And like all Gods his powers came from those that believed in him. The ogres thought him strong and war-mighty, the travellers as a God with the ability to teleport to their aid. Given the numbers, it's no wonder he developed those powers and used them to dodge us."

Farore paused her narrative, scratching her head. "If I remember right, a lot of Deities wanted him dead. The best way to kill off a god is to remove his worshippers. Some, like us, strengthened the people's faiths in our religions. Others were cruel enough to kill off those that still worshipped him. Nowadays you won't find anyone who knows him anymore." She shook her head sadly. It was ironic that the Gods had the might of life and death over the people and yet it was those people that gave them the powers. "As predicted, he started to weaken. And he soon became weak enough for a powerful mage to tackle."

Another pebble was thrown in, the waters showing the final battle between Majora and the Fierce Deity. Just like the mask Majora's eyes were wide and wild, like he had been driven to the brink of insanity. The Fierce Deity laughed all the while magic was thrown back and forth, and laughed as Majora's sealing field captured him. He laughed as his magic bled away into a piece of wood and fabric, and laughed as Majora realised what was happening. In the end, he had the final laugh. "You know the rest of the story."

Link exhaled deeply, thankful that in this realm physical injuries didn't hurt. He doubted that he'll have such freedom when he woke up. "Did the Fierce Deity have a name? I mean, I don't think he lived his life being called the Fierce Deity or the Ogre God." Did that mean the Black King had a name as well?

Farore nodded. "Yes, Hkatti. The world will never see someone like him ever again, and I hope it stays that way."

"Why didn't you ask me to destroy the Fierce Deity mask when you first met up with me? If he was such a thorn, you had the opportunity to get rid of him."

Farore shook her head. "You must learn to see the bigger picture," she admonished softly, the pool now travelling through his journeys, "how many times did you use the Fierce Deity mask for that extra edge in a battle? If I were to take it from you, I deprive you of one of the weapons you might use. Of course there are problems with you using it, but for now it can be ignored."

Problems… there were always problems. There were problems with the sword; there were problems with the Fierce Deity mask. "Might I ask what those issues are?" He asked wearily. Don't ignore a problem, which was his belief. If someone ignored Ganondorf, life would have been the hell it once was.

Farore didn't answer straight away. "Well, for one thing you wouldn't be allowed in the country Holodrum. None are really as serious as that though." For some reason Link was finding it hard to believe her second statement. Before he could ask for further clarification, she guided him away from the pool.

"You might want to recover now. In fact, I insist you recover now." With a soft kiss to his forehead she dispelled him that way. Despite wanting to ask more questions, he was grateful she didn't use her standard mallet routine.

"Ow." With intense effort he managed to open his eyelids. His chest burned like crazy, and the pain from breathing was on the brink of sending him unconscious again. No one heard him, and since it was too painful to clear his throat, he repeated it louder.

"Ow." By Farore his neck and shoulder muscles hurt. He didn't know the extent of the damage done, so he didn't want to risk moving his head. He could here someone approach this time though.

"Ow." Link didn't know what he was going to achieve by expressing his pain another time, but there was a surprised yelp from the approaching person and now more footsteps could be heard.

"Link! You're alright!" Malik cried happily. He was about to hug Link except Navi got there first, trying to splay her arms wide enough to envelope him. "How are you doing?"

"Breathing… hurts… Chest… on fire…" Link wheezed out, and Navi immediately let go. "Where's… here?"

"Kakariko village." A woman's voice said from his side. Slowly he cranked his eyes to his left to see the Gerudo standing calm. "The Sheikah village was the closest place to get help. I am impressed at their medicines."

He was dimly aware that she was probably the lady on horseback that was there when Shakaku left his departure gift. "Thanks. Will be… alright… in a while."

The Gerudo nodded to that. "That I do not disagree upon. Given a day or so you should be able to walk around, and another week your chest strong enough for you to run. That I have no doubt. It will be our sister Reza that we feel the most concern for."

Malik's happy face vanished, replaced by stony gloom. Navi's glow wilted slightly. And Link remembered how his shadow attack went awry.

A/N: Ah, a chapter after so long… I placed quite a lot of history of the Fierce Deity in this chapter. It's amazing how the Legend of Zelda fits so nicely into a web of stories, even though those web of stories people made up.

Well, I hope many of you will be satisfied with this chapter. I haven't done a big major battle in a long time, and the previous chapter had to lead up to something big. The next chapter would hopefully be even bigger.

Well, hope you enjoyed my artistic licensing on the story. Feel free to give any comments and criticisms.


	29. Fire Lily

A/N: Ha! Damned computer thought it could outdo me with its file corrupting, eh? Well, I had two back ups to make sure nothing went wrong. In three different formats (.html, .txt, .doc). It shan't fail that way. Great idea that though… once done, delete the .doc and .html and keep the compressed .txt. Thanks for caring. I feel loved.

Chapter 27: Fire Lily

The drifting wind brought voices. Muted screams, soft groans and muffled moans. People of the dead, calling out at the injustice that took their lives. People of the living, yelling themselves hoarse to block out the calls, the wails. No one cared before. Everyone screamed now.

_"He was to save us, to help us. He tried to, intended to. He did not. Save him. Save us."_

_Leaves frail from the lack of nutrients ripped free of their branches, crumbling in the breeze to scatter their dried remains across the parched earth. Green denied him. Red welcomed all. Black summoned life. _

_They clung on to life. Masons and crafters, they all pooled together to build the final frontier against those who approached. A fortress of the condemned built to hold out an army of the damned. They were to die, but oh they wanted to live._

_"He knew his mistakes. He learnt from them. But he didn't change them. Why didn't he save us? He left us to die! He leads us to death! He wouldn't change them. Save him. Save us."_

_The world pulsed. The earth trembled. Soil slithering away, the crevassed gaped in frightened awe to reveal arms. The arms of the dead clawed their way up, bodies lurching out of their graves. The world pulsed. There were thousands of them, an indestructible army numbering greater than the living._

_"He went on a journey to right his wrongs. A pilgrimage to cleanse the evils he brought with him. Instead he found more. Save him. Save us."_

_The castle cascaded with colour. Whites peeled off to reveal the throbbing purples beneath. Reds dissolved away to expose the greens that snaked their way underneath. The people intended to defend themselves with steel and fire. He knew that neither would work._

_The dead did not care to approach. They had orders not to. Wait, and strangle, and starve. Their numbers will flourish with the numbers that died. They will not commence the siege. Someone else – something else will do it for them. Their job was to scream the anguishes of man, and drive the living mad. And when the walls break and doors shatter, to charge in. Not all had weapons. Not all needed them._

_"He tried. He tried too hard to save us, serve us. He needed power to undo the wrongs. He found power, but eventually it went to a different purpose. Save him. Save us."_

_The shadows blurred, morphing and twisting. He knew what they were trying to do. He knew what they were trying to become. He fought them. He hated them. Dark Copies. _

_They surged from the crevasses and bluffs of the field, claws and blades extended. By the sheer weight of numbers they intended to break the defence – they cost nothing, so why not? The colours on the wall jarred from one shade to another, contact setting the Dark Copies into black smoke. So. Someone inside was using magic. He knew one person was not enough._

_A man stood behind the crying dead, smiling underneath his black hood. He knew the man: a friend, a foe. Once he wore green, and now he wore black. Even his blade – that wretched thing! – from the blood it drank and souls it consumed hummed with a dark light. The Odyssey Blade. The Reaper's Fist._

_"Feral. Despair. Fury. Sorrow. Fear. Entice. They were there for the moulding, and under a different master he moulded them. He doesn't serve our Deities, and yet he doesn't serve theirs. Save him. Save us."_

_A giant juggled a sword among his four arms. A gangly man held his sword limply, choosing to stare at the dead, lips twitching. A demon stood behind Him, conferring silently and gesturing with his blade. A being cloaked in a steel robe mocked the gangly man. A Shade that faded in and out of existence grinned quietly at the rest. A weaver sighed as her work was absorbed into the earth, frowning petulantly. Some had once fought him; some had once tried to manipulate him. They now all served under him as he served under a different purpose._

_"The evils of man incarnate. You cannot face them. They cannot disobey him, yet he cannot lead them. The Gods had wrestled for mastering the destiny of men. Our Goddesses lost this time. Save him. Save us."_

_The defenders fired arrow after arrow, prickling the surge of darkness beneath with lighted tips. They had ran out of enchanted wards. The magic crawling on the walls was crumbling away. The Dark Copies pulled back, snarling in their silent roars before charging one more time. The magic shattered._

_"Yet those who fight fate do not always win. Save him. Save us."_

_The dead reigned supreme._

_-S-_

Malik bolted awake, sweat-drenched blankets set flying. Irritably he shook his head to juggle the dream out. It didn't work as so much as to confirm it instead. Sighing, he flopped back into the puddle on top of his pillow, sprinkling a fine drizzle everywhere.

Damned dreams. Sometimes he had the feeling they came as a package along with the emotion magic he learnt. That was preposterous though – he never had them before. The first time he had them was… well, he forgot the first time. But they always revolved around Link.

Damned dreams.

_-S-_

If it were under different occasions, Link would have taken the time to marvel the wonders of the Lost Woods. If it were under different circumstances, Link wouldn't have taken the time to deliberately get lost. Getting lost was ideally meant to be a mistake, but once intentional…

Well, Navi was going to be his back-up in case he really did get lost. Sitting on top of a leaf in his Deku form, his present idea was just to meander around until he met another Deku Scrub, preferably a nice one or a salesman.

Nabooru was meant to arrive yesterday, but due to some complexities she arrived just a few hours ago. One glance at Reza told her all she needed: Reza's soul was a shattered wreck. What Link did with the spiritual magic was shred it into fine little pieces and scatter them to the furthest corners of her body. Thankfully whatever he did later manage to assemble them back together, tiny fragments attracting each other to rebuild it.

The problem was how they were rebuilding themselves. The correct parts attracted each other, but were still too small to attract more parts. When Link sent pulses of his own magic in and out to save the parts, it was like sloppily using high power glue to stick fragments of a vase together, but all the pieces in the wrong place. Nabooru even worried he might have missed a few chunks.

"I can't help her in this state," Nabooru had said, "Connecting with souls and spirits require the spirit to be intact, in the first place. The best shot I could try is to touch the parts which have moulded together properly and shift them to their proper positions."

That off course wasn't as easy as her just sitting opposite Reza. Rather, it required a special incense to improve spiritual communication. That incense had only been found from those very lucky few that survived entering the Lost Woods, and they didn't know where the heck they found it.

They called it the fire lily, and appropriately so. Break the wrong stem, it'll catch on fire. Its defensive puff of juices was propelled at high pressure, effectively becoming a growing screen of fire. It spread its seed in an almighty explosion, reducing the nearby plants to ash so its next generation will have rich soils to live off. Nabooru needed it in one piece though, and somehow she intended to dry it and grind it down for her incense.

"I think we need to find a different strategy," Navi yawned, body sagging against her leaf, "Deku Scrubs aren't really the walking kind of species. If you want to find them, you go to them. You've wasted an hour already sitting on that damned plant." A pity the plant wasn't a fire lily. Then again, thank the heavens it wasn't. Deku Scrubs burn messily.

"I guess so," Link said reluctantly, hopping off. He found it slightly irritating how his voice went small and squeaky in this form, and the first time Navi heard it she laughed her head off. Well, the Goron form had a deeper voice, and the Zora form came with its special own accent and slurring. "But where off to?"

Navi rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "I don't know! Your idea was to get lost and find a Deku Scrub, wasn't it? Any direction will do!"

It was a pretty stupid question, Link admitted to himself. Closing his eyes and walking backwards, he concluded that it was a pretty stupid idea in the first place. When he communicated with Saria, she said that the Kokiri usually found pressed versions of the fire lily from the wild fairies that got them from the Skull Kids, who in turn found them from the Deku Salesmen. So his best bet was to ask a Deku Scrub where he could find a fire lily.

Walking backwards with eyes closed proved to be another stupid decision, for it was not a flower he found first. Navi's surprised cry warned him, and instinctively he dropped to hug the ground. Just in time, for the mandibles of a Wolfos flew by where his head would have been.

"You buffoon! You absolute imbecile! You dope-headed ignorant moron!" Navi yelled expletives at Link while he kept spinning away from the Wolfos' leaps. In his human form, he would have been able to tackle it for sure, but given how close it was he didn't think he had time to pull off the mask and regain his composure from the pain that came along.

"I'd thank you for the insight, Navi," Link piped out – oh how he hated this voice – managing to clip the edge of its nose with his spin, "but right now I'd prefer a bit more productive help!" He briefly remembered Navi telling him before that Wolfos usually travelled in pairs. Link banished the thought quickly.

The Wolfos wasn't too happy about his fluke hit, and its bright red eyes shown with frenzied anger. Grimly it snarled, saliva flying free from its choppy attempt to snap at his head. While moving in a pirouette made Link move faster, it came with the side effect that he could not keep his eyes always on the Wolfos, and seeing it spin back into sight kept his stomach constantly queasy.

Link had suffered worse than just one Wolfos before, so Navi was pretty lax in finding a way to help him. She even took the time to laugh at how he was leading it in the same circle. Nonetheless, a guardian fairy's duty was to make sure her partner didn't get mauled to itty-bitty bits of mangled wood. Scanning the nearby foliage, she smiled in approval. That should do.

From previous conditioning she flapped her wings experimentally first before dive-bombing straight between the Wolfos' eyes. Air coalescing as a barrier around her speeding form, she reared her fist in preparation for the impact. The other fairies called her too violent, but she found it was the best way to grab anyone's attention.

As expected it managed to do that perfectly, Navi's flash on collision coupled with her fist hammering away bringing the Wolfos to try and take snags at her. Flittering deftly above its reach would only distract it until it realised Link would be an easier target. "You can change now."

The barely suppressed grunt told her he already done it, and when the Wolfos turned back to Link he was already there, hookshot in hand.

Staring at each other the Wolfos and Link slowly encircled each other, Link thumbing the contraption that would release the chain. Strangely enough he wore a slight smile, although his eyes were slightly glazed in thought.

The Wolfos took that chance to vault forward, jaws homing towards his neck. The thoughtful glaze disappeared as did the smile as Link ducked under, hooking its belly with a raised foot. Before it could scuttle back he grappled its neck, trying to pin its position by constricting its air supply.

The Wolfos flailed, front legs twisting in an imitation of arms to rend Link off. Before it managed to lay its claws on his back Link slammed the hookshot underneath where its chin would be and pressed the trigger. The messy squelch as steel ripped through brains and bone heralded the end of the fight.

Navi shuddered at the fountain of gore spewing from between its ears. "Couldn't you have found a less messy way of killing it?" She said, her face turning a little green. "That's… that's not a pretty display."

Link waited for the muscles to go limp before disengaging himself from the corpse. He frowned at the blotches of blood layering his left hand, shaking his head. "I actually intended to just stab its heart, but the thing moves too fast for me to be sure that's what I'll hit." He explained, gesturing with the hookshot at the dead body. "Me pinning it was to stop it from moving, and from then the brain was the closest option."

Navi still couldn't help shuddering. "Yeah, well, thanks to you I don't think I can look at another wolf the same way again. Brains flying and blood erupting… eargh." Wisely she chose to look up into the sky, attempting to ignore the hole in the Wolfos' head.

Link plucked her out of the air to place her on his shoulder and resumed walking. The bloodstained hookshot bobbed rhythmically on his belt as he strode. He murmured to Navi as he walked.

"I really need a sword. I think the first thing I'm going to do before I enchant anything is make a plain old basic sword. That strange ghost that sent us to the Master Quest," he paused to frown sourly, "taught me quite a bit. I think I said it before, but using obsidian will give me a killer edge. The trick I'm trying to find is how to attach that to steel without it falling out. And finding some obsidian, as well."

Amazingly enough his voice didn't call up more creatures to attack him, and he continued rambling about blades. "The sword really depends on what I want to do with it. Kill, naturally, otherwise why make a sword? Although I've just had the most brilliant idea of making a sword that's not meant to kill. Don't give me that look, but it's a self-defensive blade. I'll give it a shape so that when the user swings with it, it'll push the opponent back more than slash him open."

Navi really didn't care about weapons that much, but Link seemed to be too caught up in his fascinations and ideas. The ghost that sent them to the Master Quest had also dumped her brain with knowledge, but not something she would have liked to know. There were weapons more deadly than steel could ever achieve to be, and she wished she didn't know where they were, how to use them, how to massacre armies with them. Whoever made them deserved to never been born.

"… The main trick will be cutting, I say. Most of my attacks are slashes, and stabs come to think of it. I'll only need one edge, and maybe a bit of curve – I don't stab much, and my spin attack would benefit from it…"

"Hey Link," Navi called out.

"… Shock absorption requires something soft. A soft core, or a soft back, what do you think I should pick? I'm thinking about putting little wires inside so they can vibrate to dissipate the energy from blocking, but where to find space to put those…"

"Link! Stop! Hey! Are you even listening?" Navi said louder.

"… Length of blade is a key issue. A long blade means I can poke and slash away from a safe distance, but reduces control over the point. I think I'll just stick to the good old measurement of from left wrist to right shoulder…"

"LINK, STOP!" She shouted into his ear.

Blinking in surprise, he stopped and glanced at her. "What, what is it?"

"You've found your Deku Scrubs."

Preoccupied in his thoughts he was surprised to see indeed she was right. Chatting away, he didn't watch where his feet brought him. There weren't any tunnels in sight anymore, just lightly dense clusters of trees and thick foliage. Small trickles of light managed to wriggle past the canopies though, and where they landed flowers of all kinds bloomed.

The said Deku Scrubs weren't exactly keen to see him. Sitting in the relative safety of their flowers, they stared at him suspiciously, ready to drop back into their protective blossoms. Organised into a crescent shape facing him, if he dared threaten them they should be able to deliver maximum payload against him.

Smiling broadly, Link surreptitiously remembered them and their positions before walking away, whistling. Navi stared at him in confusion as he waltzed off to hide behind a growth of trees. A cracking sound and a yell from him came forth, and after a few minutes Deku Link waddled back out, whistling the same tune as before. Navi slapped her head and moaned – no one would believe that those two were different.

Amazingly though, the Deku Scrubs did buy it. Upon seeing the strange boy depart and a little Deku child approach, they dropped their wariness to wave the kid over. It was all Navi could do to not stare too hard.

"Where are you going, child? It's not safe to travel alone, you know." The largest Deku Scrub asked kindly. "You have nasty creatures and their like. Why, just now the most bizarre Hylian walked past! Those are the most dangerous."

Another nodded solemnly in agreement. "The Lost Woods doesn't seem to be giving us much protection lately. The only reason we don't leave is that its still the best place for food and shelter." His disgruntled swaying gave his opinion on that.

"My mama wants me to find a fire lily," Link improvised in the cutest voice he could achieve. "Do you know where I can find one?"

The third Deku Scrub looked at him oddly. "Why find such a dangerous plant, child? You could suffer burns, or worse!"

A fourth Deku Scrub looked like it would have slapped the third. "You don't think!" she said angrily. "Don't you remember what we Scrubs need a fire lily for? This poor child needs its medicine for his family!"

Immediately pity filled the eyes of all present Deku Scrubs as they offered their warmest condolences to Link. Playing as the confused child he nodded hesitantly, asking 'what's wrong with mama'.

One deemed it too cruel to tell what ailment a fire lily could cure, and instead guided Link's gaze off to a distance. "There's a patch of fire lilies growing in that direction, three hundred odd paces away. Look for two big stones next to each other; the fire lilies should be close around there." He waited for Link to nod before continuing. "Now you better be careful there. The fire lilies catch fire very easily if handled improperly, and on the ground is a lot of pale yellow liquid that spreads the fire even better." A lot of the Deku Scrubs grimaces at that. "Take the plant gently by the roots, carefully scrape the soil and liquid away. You should then gently pick it up by the base and don't jolt it too much when carrying it back home." He waited for Link to nod again.

Another Deku Scrub sighed. "I myself would go along to help you, but the more Scrubs there are there the higher the chances something will go wrong. A fire lily shouldn't be too hard to spot: red petals and eight petals to each flower. The stem is very pale green, almost translucent. I wish you well, little child."

Link thanked them all before toddling off in the given direction. Taking a while to shake off her bewilderment Navi followed soon afterwards. When they were out of sight Link changed back into his human form.

"I," he declared, "am the greatest actor alive."

Navi snorted. "Don't bloat your ego too much. You only said four lines. They probably believed you because they didn't know the magic to change form existed, nothing to do with acting."

Link shrugged. "Who cares? We know where to go now at least. Let's get this over and done with."

The two big stones to the Deku Scrubs were really just waist height for Link. Standing on top of one of the stones, he peered around to see where the fire lilies were.

When Navi went close to examine the pale yellow liquid dribbling its way across the hard ground, she took a sniff before backing away. Miniature lakes of the liquid had gathered to a side, and the small streams that supplied it followed off towards the fire lilies.

"Most interesting," she muttered to herself, "I think that this stuff is oil. How it can come directly from a plant, I can only wonder."

Link flicked out a bottle to collect some of the oil from the pool. Thinking about it, he pulled out his other three and emptying one of its milk content filled them all with oil. "Some people might be interested in this stuff. I think I should collect more of the plants as well."

Carefully he kneeled down and used his fingers to brush away the soil from a plant's roots. "And how, pray tell, are you going to carry them all?" Navi drawled. "Delicate care, the Deku Scrubs said. You can't do that holding three in each hand."

Link nodded. "That's true. I'm just going to drop them into my bomb bag. It's meant to be fire resilient and water proof, so nothing should go wrong. Just give me a few minutes and we can whisk out of here and presto, instant Reza cure."

Navi could think of one. "A ha… well, one thing can. I forgot how we got here."

_-S-_

Malik was thumbing the rosary in his hand, trying to remember how Link did his special trick with it. With amazing speed he managed to break the rosary, send a bead flying and mend it before anyone noticed a bead was loose. Link said that it was just a magic trick, it was actually a rosary and a separate bead pulled out of his sleeves, but Malik was pretty sure he was trying to cover up his special speed trick.

Link wouldn't even tell him how to achieve his special speed trick. When asked, he would mutter about near-deaf experiences, brighten when he realised Link was there and with a wide swagger and jumping eyebrows say that everyone had their special tricks and leave it at that.

At least he taught Malik his Web of Strings trick. Well, not teach it – explain the basis of the trick and how left it to Malik to figure out how to turn that into a technique. From what he could remember in the Kokiri Forest, Link wasn't a very good teacher.

"Think about folding clothes," Link had tried to explain, "if you just stuff it into a bag, you'll fit less clothes. But if you do compress it, you can squeeze in that extra space. Now think of that bag as a paper bag. When it is full, it bulges, and when it's empty it's slim. When it's slim you can fold that too. The trick is to _imagine_ the full bag is slim and fold it. From there, you do that again, putting more imaginary slim bags into a bigger bag and fold it. It's limited by how much mana you want to devote to this trick though." When asked what he meant by pretend a fat bag is small, his answer wasn't helping any. "Up close, a bag is a bag. In a distance, a bag is a dot. If you want to peer at the individual fibres making up a bag, your field of vision can't even hold a single bag. From a distance though, how many of those dots do you think you can squeeze into what you can see?"

Like that helped. How do you go off pretending something is big by leaving it far, far behind and stating it is small? The idea shouldn't work, and yet with Link it did. So Malik was sure it was doable. Link said it was easier if you stored flexible stuff like string and bandages.

Malik sighed, giving up on trying to pull apart and analyse Link's technique. With magic, common sense fell through the roof. And most likely fell up. Pocketing the rosary, he chose to enjoy the scenery from above the windmill.

The citizens of Kakariko were in a mess right now. Given the reason, he expected those in Castletown to be in the same state. No matter how hard a king tries or a retainer tries to keep quiet, rumours fly. And when in the middle of the night the Sheikah army and the Hylian procession leaves and return battered and some missing, people jumped to conclusions. Very accurate conclusions.

The archery shop in both Kakariko Village and Castletown now had enough business for the owners to retire wealthy. People were now paranoid of shadows twisting into enemies, and thought that knowing how to shoot will save them. Those few that realised their own shadows might be as threatening tried to find someone to teach them how to use a sword. Malik guessed the Palace was getting more revenue with their sword tutoring.

Malik wasn't one to complain about that, though. So what if two in every three people walked around with a bow slung across their backs and a quiver of arrows on their hips? It's hardly worth mentioning how people jumped when shadows moved, drawing knives, swords or whatever sharp available, only to put them away when they realised it was just the clouds.

Malik didn't believe the Dark Copies could warp out of shadows. If they could do that, why march all the way across Hyrule Field when they could just suddenly appear in the Zora Domain? In fact, if they did have that trick no one would be safe, no matter how many people knew how to hold a sword without stabbing their feet.

He had a newfound respect for Link, watching the guards try and teach people how to swing a wooden sword around. When sitting on the fences, it was easy to laugh at how they moaned at their arms hurting or legs trembling, and grumbling as they walked away bruised and battered. When trying himself though, he could see where their opinions came from. It was best to just stick to his nice lightweight knives. How Link swung a steel version around without breaking sweat he had no idea.

Despite the new worries, life was still good. Perched on top of the windmill, people still did their usual tasks below; the carpenter brothers still whinged about the work they had to do, the shopkeepers still sold their wares of vegetables and meats, Anju still tried to feed her cuccos without getting too close. The breeze was pleasant, the sky bright and the plants healthy.

Which was not what Malik could say about Reza. Already a week had passed since the spirit energy blast incident, and she didn't seem to be in any better shape than before. The doctors managed to feed her with a drip down her vein, but aside from barely living she wasn't… living.

Nabooru had arrived yesterday, and her outlook on Reza's health hadn't been any easier. Link had left to hunt for the flower she needed, saying that he was best for the job because he was most familiar with the Lost Woods and they needed Malik to watch over Reza. Unfortunately, the moment Link had left the dozen odd Gerudo residing in Kakariko Village had taken residence in Impa's house, brought Reza up there as well and didn't want a child Sheikah to take care of her. So that just left him to watch people practice with their bows and swords and sit on top of windmills.

"Link hasn't returned yet," he said softly to himself, "been inside the Lost Woods for a night already. I wonder whether he's doing okay? Well, it'll be his fault for not taking me along. I demanded the right to follow as I please, but no, oh mighty Link had to get Nabooru to sit on me while he left." Come to think of it, he wasn't sure whether Link actually asked her to do it. He must have – Malik couldn't fathom anyone sitting on another person unless they were asked to. Crossing his arms underneath his head he lied back, kicking his feet dejectedly while staring at the sky.

"That one looks kind of like a duck," he thought aloud, "and above it is a tiny mongoose. A mongoose riding a duck. It might be a snake though. Who knows? Navi probably would. She could just fly up whenever she chose and do whatever she wanted. I wonder why she doesn't. I'd like to fly."

"Lying that close to the edge, you might instead have to find a way to enjoy falling." A woman's voice said behind him. Jumping up hurriedly, he might have actually fallen if not for a tanned hand darting out and pulling him back from the scruff of his neck. "What'd I tell you?" The voice clucked. Patting his clothes out irritably, he turned around to see Nabooru and her smirk.

"What're you doing up here? How'd you get up here? You had to have gone through the Sheikah Caverns to get here." Malik demanded, edging safely away from the side. Nabooru chose to peer around at the village beneath instead of answering.

"Wow, this is a pretty good view. Not as high as some areas in the Gerudo Fortress, but then again over there the most we have to see are sandbags and sand. It's a pity that you have to wait for the windmill blades to pass first. You know, back in the Desert someone's trying to harness the waterfall to generate energy – a continuous ventilation system, the idea is. Good luck to them."

Malik frowned. "You're not answering my questions."

Nabooru laughed. "My dear boy, whatever gave you that idea? I was just about to get around to them." Picking up a rosary bead he had left, she threw it so that it landed in a tree in the far distance. She laughed as the nearby people drew their blades when it rustled, and laughed harder when they warily approached it, staying clear of its swaying shadow.

"Well, yes, I entered your precious little cavern. It's your fault for leaving an entry behind the bookshelf in the house we're staying in. Now and then we pop in to see what's inside. Oh, don't look so scandalised, we've never been caught, and I've entered enough times to remember how to get up here.

"As for why I'm here, well, I thought you'd be happy to know Link returned. Half dead if I might say so myself," somehow she found that funny, "but he returned with the plant I needed. More than just the plant though, he carried around some of the finest furs I've ever seen. Just thought you might want to know and visit."

After a day and a half, finally! Malik wondered what took Link so long. Nodding, he followed behind Nabooru to Impa's house. She apparently wasn't lying about exploring the place; twice she met up with her fellow Gerudo and chatted for a brief minute before walking off. How could the Sheikah inside not notice them? They seemed to swarm the entire place! After counting the two she talked to, five she waved at and three that went around the corner they arrived in the house.

She wasn't lying about Link. Slouching in the chair, his bedraggled form was lazily nursing a cup of milk. His eyes were haggard, staring off in the distance, hair limp, and he didn't seem to want to spare the energy to close his mouth. And he was also resting his scuffed boots on top of what appeared to be the skin of a giant grey bear.

What the hell happened? That was what Malik wanted to say. "What the hell happened?" Coincidentally that was what he said. Navi was snoring away in Link's palm, her faint light illuminating the shadows on Link's face.

"Did you know that I can't use my warp songs in the Lost Woods?" Link said tiredly. "Navi concluded that the rampant energies flying around don't let it work. You have to be somewhere orderly like the Forest Temple or without much loose mana for them to work."

Malik shook his head.

"Did you also know that the Lost Woods is a great deal larger than I first thought? You might have gone in, you might have not, but first you have your tunnel systems. Then you have your maze of trees. Those stretch for at least ten kilometres. They even drone with mana as well, and that skews up any attempt at magic there."

Malik shook his head again.

"Did you know that the same fuzz of mana messes with Navi's navigational system? Heh, just noticed that. Navi. Gati. Onal. There must be two fairies named that. Anyway, aside from making her just as lost as I, it causes animals there to grow abnormally?" He gestured down to the giant bear at his feet.

"So what the hell happened? I got lost with no way to teleport my way out, and there were more even nastier than that trying to skin me. I would have taken their hides as well, except for that most were scaly. Given what I've gone through, I think I deserve to name them. This behemoth of a bear I'm calling Bubu. The oversized Dinolfos I'm calling Barney – oh Farore, how it tried to sing! Its self-defence must have been driving its predators mad with that song. The ten metre giant snake that jumped out of the forest floor I'm calling a blinking bugger of a bastard. It really was."

Nabooru chuckled. "It probably was a derivation of our desert snake. We call it a Gyz, but I like your name more. Shy massive things with nasty teeth, I'm impressed you still have all four limbs." Clapping him hard on the back, she turned back to the table where six red flowers were held in a vase. "Well, you managed to get the fire lilies, and a lot of its oil. That's what matters. I'm sure Reza would cook you a thank-you banquet – she's quite talented it that."

Link nodded tiredly. "Do you need any help?"

Nabooru raised an eyebrow at him. "In your state, you would be the one needing help. Standing, that is. Nah, the first thing I need to do is dry them out. Apparently without a source of water they dry quicker than most other plants, and you already helped do that. Just come back in three or so hours, and you can watch then." With a flick of her wrist the two Gerudo standing guard at the door stood and proceeded in carrying Link with his chair out. With a pointed glance Malik followed.

"Hah, I see they didn't give me my Bubu rug. You honestly don't know how hard it was to kill it. The Barney dinosaur must have been the most irritating." Link grumbled, raising his cup to drain the last drop of milk from it.

"How'd you defeat them?" Malik asked. Without a sword, Link must have found it very difficult. Malik wondered whether Link would be inclined to give sword lessons.

"Well, fighting the snake involved climbing up a tree, throwing rocks and shooting arrows. Until it started climbing the tree, that tactic worked pretty well. After that, it went down to boa wrestling. I was dragged through the dirt when it tried to dive down with me still attached. I eventually killed it when it tried to bite my leg off by crushing its skull with the Megaton hammer. The singing dinosaur involved plugging up my ears. It probably knew of that tactic, for it decided that if it can't deafen its opponent, it'd turn them colour blind. It and its splotches of pinks and purples and greens. Eh." Link shivered at the memory. "I had to club its head to mush too."

"What about the bear?"

"Ah, that was the usual standard fight. Circle one another, let the bear leap – truly monstrous, I tell you – block its claws and teeth, duck under, try and swipe at its heart, roll away if failed, and repeat. It took a few good hits to take it down. The fur was a trophy." Link seemed proud of that.

Malik nodded. "I see. So, what are you going to do next, when Reza's better?" Hopefully teach Malik his special speed trick. Near deaf experiences indeed!

Link turned his gaze to Death Mountain. "I, for one, am going to make a sword. Two swords, in fact. One Second Seal, one good old sharp and useful." Link mumbled something that sounded like he better get it right.

"If you can make two swords, it wouldn't be any different from making three, right?" Malik asked slowly, an idea coming to mind. This idea will benefit Link's pocket, benefit the citizens of Kakariko and most importantly satiate Malik's desire to spite Link. It was his fault for releasing that stupid blast of spirit magic.

"I guess so. Why, do you want one?"

"If you can make three, it's hardly any harder to make four, right?"

"Probably. Reza has her own pair of scimitars though."

"If you can make four, there should be no trouble making five, right?"

"… I think I see where you're getting at."

"If you can make five, there's no problem making six, right?"

"… Malik, what do you want?"

Malik smiled. "Think about it. Everyone nowadays is paranoid about their shadows jumping out and strangling them, and unless you learnt how to make a bow you can make a lot of money selling quality swords! And teaching them how to use it! That way when we get into fixes like the last time, we have more people ready and prepared to fight with us!"

Link shook his head. "I'm not a factory, you know. I can't mass-produce like what you're suggesting. It should really take five or so people to make one decent sword, and that takes days! I only go quicker with mana. Besides, do you really think they'll accept sword techniques from a boy?"

Malik shrugged. "They accepted that you fought off a wall of shadow monsters. That's enough for them. They will accept swords that have your quality assurance, and your training. What's there not to like about this?"

Link shrugged. "I don't know. It takes too long, that's what. Let's suppose I can squeeze three swords out everyday. That means I'll spend at least three hundred days making swords for every able bodied man in this village. And then I will have to spend another four months to turn them into decent fighting forces. In that time, do you think Shakaku will stay still? It takes too much time for one thing, and I don't think there will be enough resources around to do what you're suggesting."

Malik frowned. "What about just the training? Or just the sword making?"

Link shook his head. "I can't be stuffed. If you want a fighting force, you train them to use spears and stick together. I don't know what goes into a spear well, and I don't want to be the one teaching people who swing around sharpened sticks. Too dangerous."

Given how Malik seemed to be looking up and tapping his foot, Link suspected he was trying to do something. "Will you make me a sword, then?"

"I guess so."

"And if I was to lose it on the day you give it to me, and paid you richly to make me a new one, will you do it?"

"Maybe."

"And if I lost that sword, and paid you the same amount if not more to make another one?"

"No."

"Why not?" Malik whined. "Aren't you driven by materialistic gains? Don't you like being rich?"

Link barked a laugh. Navi twitched in her sleep, and Link looked down apologetically before returning Malik's gaze. "I move around a lot. I probably spent a fifth of my life on a horse. So what if I have the world's fattest wallet? I can't use it then."

Malik was about to protest further, but Link waved it off. "Later. Right now, I want to catch some sleep. Running and fighting day and night tends to turn your brain to goo. And maybe get some food. Navi would like that." Yawning, he stumbled to his feet, and staggered off to find somewhere to sleep.

Malik sighed, grimacing at Link's back. He knew it wasn't Link's fault for making Reza what she was, after all no one knew it was going to do that. And yet he couldn't stop himself from blaming Link. Link for diving off like a madman, even if his spells were more effective than anything else. Link for even considering that spirit spell, even though it was his only source of magic left. Link for abandoning Malik to help Reza, even though it was to deal with Shakaku. Link for just being the damned hero Link was. He would forgive him the moment Reza got better, but until then Malik wanted to luxuriate in his spite.

Ah well, everything worked out for the better back then. Maybe it will now?

_-S-_

Nabooru wasn't one to complain, but she found waiting for the flowers to dry out the most boring endeavour she ever had the displeasure to do. When she was a wee kid and had to do sentry duty, at least she could admire the scenery, or play 'I Spy' with those with her, or gamble. Here, confined to the four walls that made up this room, she had played the child's game until there was not a single dust mote not speculated and searched over. There was no scenery beyond the bookshelves either. All there was to do was sit and watch the grass grow. Or the flowers dry.

Pausing, she tried to recollect how she rose in the ranks. Standard soldiers wore purple, and you went up the rainbow to hit the top level of red. Six ranks altogether: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Then you had white, the ultimate guard, awarded the rank for shown intellect, able body and honour to the forms. And black. The blacks were just called the blacks, because no name had been named for them.

Someone had suggested calling them assassins, but Nabooru shook that idea off immediately. True, being able to walk through walls and waltz around unseen made you the perfect murderer, but she did not cultivate the spiritual powers of some of her Gerudo to turn them to political killers. Her first idea had been to train them to be improved versions of scouts, able to pass undetected, spy on those who would dare challenge the Gerudo and return safely with messages and reports. The idea of making them a weapon crossed her mind a couple of times, but that was not to be their sole purpose. If they were made to kill, what would happen to them when the killing was done? Nabooru didn't know, and she hoped she wouldn't need to know.

How many did she have training to wear the black uniform? From the perspectives of others, it could hardly be called a uniform, much less clothing: the mana and concentration needed to pull and invert your body out of sight and existence was heavy, and made heavier by whatever you had to bring with you, so Nabooru had decided on making the uniform as light and little as possible. She had also contemplated on tattooing them with magical inscriptions that would allow them to last longer veiled – a slang term they made for being non-existent – and carry more clothes, and perhaps weaponry. Most of them didn't seem keen on the idea, surprising Nabooru.

Twenty of them had understood the principles, and could veil themselves. Sixteen could do that and move. Half that number could actually do anything more strenuous that walking. Only four had mastered going through walls, and veiling quickly and for longer. Forty-eight out of sixty students had gotten anywhere from a years worth of training. The remaining twelve had died trying. Not a good casualty rate.

Nabooru tried to steer her mind back to more happy topics, like how she used to goof off as a teenager. Teihra used to taunt her to enter the Haunted Wastelands, and she used to taunt her back. Back then, their best was five steps before they chickened out, got pummelled by the heavy winds and sand or got caught. Now, she could waltz through spinning with her eyes blindfolded to reach the Spirit Temple. Who would have thought her, general bubblehead, goofball and faithful to the King became the ringleader against Ganondorf and the two Witches, _and_ the Spirit Sage? Teihra would have eaten her sword. Nabooru couldn't believe it either.

It was a true pity that they left on less than happy grounds. Deemed a spy, a turncoat, a traitor, she had been exiled from their lands for loving a Sheikah. She was despised, hated, and the few times she approached the gates she got spat at. Nabooru thought she would never have returned. And yet a year later when demons started swarming through Ganondorf's portal, she was the one who fought them back, her and her two headed glaive, and died in the attempt. Now she was a hero – even Ganondorf acknowledged that.

Nabooru remembered her saying something about a daughter. She wondered where the special girl could be, and how she was getting on in life. If her guess was right, she would be roughly 18 or 19. The hero's daughter wouldn't probably know what happened, or what her origins were. Nabooru doubted she would accept them if she was her.

With life, Nabooru concluded, you had to accept what happened. If you lived in a world of ruin, get tough and deal with it. If you didn't live very long, well there was no time left to worry. If a sixth of your special Gerudo team died in training, improve. If your best friend had died branded as a traitor, well… you'll find a way to live.

Nabooru sighed loudly, dropping her weight onto a wooden chair. It creaked from the sudden experience of force, but thankfully didn't buckle. Rocking slowly (and wincing at the sounds it made), she paused to consider her own personal motto.

I am stronger than the fires that test me.

There was a time when she had forsaken that. Kotake and Koume, those blasted Witches… when they took over her mind, there was no time for personal thought. Like a zombie she did what they told her to do, act like what they wanted her to, say what they needed her to. And when Link finally freed her, what did she do? Run. Or at least try to. Even that didn't work.

Oh, Link didn't know how much she owed him. As if giving him the spirit medallion made up for anything. The coin might have, but that resulted in more problems that Nabooru felt were partly her fault. They were all done under the name of duty – what Link did eventually was vital for his success, but he did it because it was the right thing to do.

"I am stronger than the fires that test me." Nabooru whispered softly to herself. She would be. She had to be. With what trials the Goddesses made them face, she needed to be.

"Did you say something?" Zephira at the door asked, twitching her muscles free from locking still. Rolling her shoulders made the two sheaths on her back clank against each other.

"Eh? Oh, nothing of mention. Just wondering whether putting the damned flowers over smoke will make them burn on us," Nabooru lied deftly, gesturing to the still lively plants. "My butt is going to grow stiff if I stay still."

Zephira chuckled and nodded, almost reluctantly returning to her position by the door. Given her grimace, Nabooru expected she couldn't feel her feet from standing there for three hours. Nabooru wouldn't be able to feel her spine if she had to herself.

_-S-_

Warm, fuzzy dream, full of fluff and cuddly things. That was what Navi was at present dreaming about. Of course, food interjected no and then. Her favourite in real life was orange ice cream, her least enjoyed tapioca pudding. In her dream, it was the other way round. In her dream, she walked around on her hands as well.

She and Link had entered the wonders of Marshmallow-Land, where the evil King Peanut ruled with a wrinkled fist. The poor marshmallow denizens had to suffer his tyranny and taxes of five cotton candies a week, and so it was up to her to save them. Link somehow got captured by the Popcorn guards, and she with her iron-strong stomach managed to eat away the menace. And then the people, which they weren't so happy about. But it didn't matter.

Through the portals in the Lost Woods they next went to Happy-Fairy-Land, where all the fey folk were happy. That unfortunately came from harvesting happiness off everyone else, so Link quickly became sad. Navi, being the courageous and noble fairy that she was, tried to strike a balance and give the human population their joy back. That dream ended with half the humans and fairies committing suicide though. She didn't like that dream much. She found it even worse when they were reincarnated as sheep, and potatoes were out to eat them. When they left, it was Unhappy-Sheep-Infested-Potato-Attacking-Mad-Sad-Land-that-was-Really-Underwater-so-Therefore-Not-Land. And that was just the abbreviated name.

Waking up from her dream of attacking toffee with a baton of chocolate, she found herself in the comforting blankets of Link's cap. Well, when it wasn't drenched with sweat, blood and dirt, it was comforting. It was comforting because Link had the strange superstition all Kokiri had that grime kept for too long will seep into your skin and the brain is the most vulnerable. Navi was pretty sure the fairies made that story up to keep them clean. It kept Link's hat generally clean.

He had taken it off to place on the wooden bedside table, and was at present lying face down on his small mattress with his left arm hanging off the bed. Navi rolled her eyes; someday he was going to suffocate himself like that. From the loud sounds that marked his breathing, he needed very strong lungs to pull the air through the pillow.

It was at times like these Navi had to marvel what Link was, what Link had become. The boy without a fairy, the Hero of Time, the saviour of Hyrule, Sworn Brother of the Gorons, Accepted of the Gerudo, Child of the Kokiri, Favoured of the Zora and Ally of the Sages: those were his titles, whether he knew it or not. Navi was pretty sure the Sheikah had thrown in something as well for cleansing the well and defeating Bongo Bongo, a dark beast that had haunted them for decades until Impa had sealed it away. And when Ganondorf granted its desire to be free, Link managed to free them from its revenge. They better give a title.

Although whether or not they did, Link didn't seem to care. Travelling around on Epona, giving a swagger and a smile to Malon when they passed, pretending to be humble in front of Zelda and seemingly trying to avoid the Zoras, titles meant very little to him. All he wanted was his little enjoyments of sleeping late, eating heavily and enjoying the earth and heavens.

And yet he seemed to believe it was his task of making what he called a Second Seal. Navi didn't know why he seemed to be trying so hard: no one was actually telling him to do it, and yet he tried as if the Goddesses spoke to him personally. Given the eccentricities that followed along with him, she wouldn't have been too surprised if they actually did. Imagine, suddenly coming up with the idea to dive into his body and merge to create a more potent being!

Navi herself didn't know where by the heavens that idea came from. In the fringe of desperation fighting the Dark Angels, a thought struck her. Given their magical composure, they should feel detrimental effects from light magic! And quite conveniently, a large make up of fey magic was light magic. The rest flowed into her mind.

It was a… strange experience, to say the least. Her body morphed and disappeared, leaving her mind flowing through Link's head. While he was in that form, she could _see_ his thoughts, read his decisions and talk to his mind. Whatever he did she could not control, but she had the feeling that he could pass control over the body to her if need be. The prospect of mastering a body that pulsed with energy and literally hummed with its potency sent shivers down her spine. How could Link think straight above that song, whispering promises of infinite power? How could he let go? Probably because he could ignore them. How, Navi wanted to know.

Fluttering her wings gingerly, she unsteadily floated off to the window. Night seemed to be approaching, the sky undergoing the metamorphosis of dying its vast reaches red only to be consumed by darkness when the sun finally set. They had managed to find the way back early in the morning, meaning that Link must have warped over roughly in the afternoon. Why he wanted to keep the bear skin was beyond her: sure, it felt nice, but it didn't look nice and was definitely heavy. He would have been easy prey carrying that around. Except for that no one attacked him. Maybe he had been using its skin to ward off other potential conflicts, with its hulking size and smell of battle and blood.

If he did, he was certainly a lot smarter than she gave him credit for. Of course, no idiot could have figured answers in the middle of battle and solve the riddles the Temples challenge every entrée with, but she didn't think he was that smart. Most of his Temple answers seemed like a fluke. A lot of flukes. An accidental lean here, a tired sit there, a need for light now and then… a lot of flukes. Maybe they weren't flukes. The idea of a smart Link, a truly mind engaged and able to accelerate into overdrive in a flash Link, was strangely frightening.

Maybe it was a balance thing. Smart people tended to be frail and weak. Strong people tended to need more mental encouragement to think. That way no one could totally best another. And yet look at Link: strong enough to throw something four times his weight and smart enough to deceive others to think he wasn't as bright… truly frightening.

Looking at the sleeping sloth eased some of her pangs though. As disruptive as it might be to the balance of things, there was no reason to be afraid of Link. Unless some overly powerful force managed to dominate his mind, he would never harm anyone he believed innocent. And Navi doubted anyone would be able to do such a thing to him.

There was a game she once learnt in her travels. The Seven Gambits. It really involved in making the right decisions, or being sent into enslavement. Old myth said that it was a game the Goddesses had taught the Hylians to punish the foolhardy, and some part of that myth involved it being a celestial game in itself. Chess, go and checkers together combined wouldn't have covered the complexity behind the game. Failure was a truly heavy price to pay then, and many were fearful to learn how to play it.

This was just why Navi herself was daft enough to pick it up. The goal was to capture the opponents' Left Hand – the game involved playing against six other players, so a strange weave of hidden alliances and broken promises was involved – and keeping yours alive. Standing in the centre of the board, the Right Hand could exact punishment on any in direct line, but just as easily an opponent's Right Hand could harm it by yours just being there. The Gloved Fists could only attack other Gloved Fists, unless they stood in specific patterns where they could suffocate any piece, and the Iron Fists were strategic pieces that could be converted by being choked, but if that process took too long it would demolish the surrounding army. Seven different pieces. Seven players. Seven different rules.

She never played it, for she never found six other people willing to. This was a game of conquering the board, and then ultimately the players. It kind of reminded her of Link's predicament. Defeat the Dark Copies thrown against you, rally up your allies and hunt for the neck of those who sent them. If it had a neck.

"Hey Link," she said loudly, kicking his prone form, "is there anything of particular importance we're meant to do?"

"Hmm…"

"Nothing to do with the fire lilies? Or is that tomorrow?" Mentally Navi cursed herself for waking up early. Then she remembered her strange nightmare of a dream.

"Hmm…"

"Are you even listening? Do we really have a free remainder of the day?"

"Hmm…"

"Are you even awake?"

"Hmm…"

Just before she was to raise her arms in defeat and return to his cap for a nap, Malik barged in, calling out in his loudest voice about visiting Nabooru about Reza. Link snorted and rolled over at first, but he eventually got up, albeit sluggishly, and stumbled after Malik. Navi sighed; he forgot his hat. He must have been really tired from the Lost Woods: an entire night without sleep, fighting monsters and then carrying a heavy bear skin, trying to push out the vibes that throbbed around you… Navi wouldn't have blamed Link if he acted a bit cranky afterwards.

_-S-_

_Who are you?_

_I am I. I am you, but you are not I._

_Who are you?_

_I am me. You, you are not me. I am I._

_Where are you?_

_I am in I. you are in I too. Why?_

_Where are you?_

_I am here. Why am I here? Why are you here?_

_I am help._

_No. I need no help. I am I. I need no help about I._

_I am help._

_I am strong. I need no help. I am Gerudo. Gerudos never need help._

_Gerudo__ Who are you?_

_I am Gerudo. I am a Gerudo. I am I. Why are you here?_

_Gerudo__ Who are you?_

_Who am I? I am a Gerudo. I am Reza. I am I._

_Reza.__ I am help._

_I need no help. Why? I am Reza. I am I._

_Reza.__ I am help._

_What happened? Why do I need help? I am I. I am strong._

_You need help. _

_What happened? I am strong. I fight on._

_You need help._

_I fight on. I fought. I fight._

_You fought. I am help._

_I fought. I fight still. I am I._

_You fought. I am help._

_I am I. I am strong. I need no help. I fight on._

_Fight. You fight help?_

_No. I need no help, but I do not fight help. I am I._

_Fight. You fight help?_

_No. I am I. I fight on. I need help._

_Let me help._

_Why? Who are you? Where are you?_

_Let me help._

_Help. I need help. Why?_

_You are broken._

_I am I. I am nothing else. I am I._

_You are broken._

_I need help. I am I. Help me._

_I am help. You need help. Let me help. I am help. I will help. I will help._

_-S-_

Reza jolted. Orange mana arced around her form, before finally receding back in. With a gasp she inhaled deeply. Pain sizzled across her skin, and she opened her eyes.

That appeared to have been a mistake, as the viscous smoke that floated above set them tearing up. Feebly she raised a hand to waft it away before attempting vision again.

Nabooru was the first person she saw. Slouching slightly against the bed, she offered Reza a comforting smile. A small pot next to her was releasing the smoke, which on further analysis gave quite a soothing smell.

Link, Navi and Malik stood behind Nabooru, all wearing mixed variations of relief and happiness. Malik seemed to be on the verge of tears; Navi was already crying. Link looked up and silently offered a prayer to the Goddesses.

Slowly the events that happened trickled into her mind. Battling against a horde of Dark Copies, suddenly realising that they were vanishing and an orange glow striking towards and swarming her. From then on… nothing.

It didn't matter though. From what she could garner from their faces, she had to be thankful. She was alive.

_-S-_

A/N: Ha! Promised to release it on Tuesday – that actually depends where you live, thinking about it – and I managed to. Well, I feel rather pleased about that. Please, give your comments and criticisms. Although forgive me if I don't pay too much attention to criticisms: I'm too pleased with myself. Beat the damned machine.

In case no one noticed – which I hardly doubt, but just making sure – the names of the two creatures were deliberate. I hate Barney and all the derivations of his songs. They just grow… irritating. My apologies if someone finds that offensive.

There was a link here to something else, but I can't remember what… The game Seven Gambits I actually made up, and thinking about it deeper, it sounds like a pretty cool game. The colour coding of the Gerudo came from Majora's Mask: you actually only fight 4, and they're in slightly different orders, but that's what I put them into anyway.

Just out of curiosity, could you tell me which country you're reviewing from? I'd like to know where I'm impacting. Thanks.


	30. Steel Ghost

A/N: Has anyone seen the new Zelda Twilight Princess trailer? When it's finally released, I expect the game to be sold out in three days. Or maybe less. Perhaps they'll offer discounted NGCs to go with it? Whatever they do, it looks pretty damned impressive.

Oh yeah, in case some of you didn't know, the earlier note has been replaced with a chapter, but it didn't show up in changing the update time. Curse you, A thousand poxes on your managers!

Chapter 28: Steel Ghost

Despite all the trouble caused by Link's spirit magic attack, it did come with one special bonus: Nabooru had determined that Reza could be _taught_ spirit magic. In her words, the damage done left a sort of vacuum that kept pulling the earth's magic in, so thereby giving Reza her own source to start training with.

This of course meant that she had to return to the Desert for her new training, and most of the Gerudo were pulling back as well. Now that everyone knew the threat of Dark Copies, soldiers were posted all over the place, and armed with special charms dropped by a large owl swooping by with the scribbles 'courtesy of the Kokiri' on the package. Link still believed that if Shakaku wanted to, he could smash apart whatever defence the Hylians, Sheikah, Gorons and Zoras could pull up, but at least it will give enough time for everyone else to flee.

"I don't want to go!" A voice whined, and Link could hear the scrabbling as hands clawed at grass and dirt being ripped free. "You can't make me!" More voices came along, muttering about impudence in children these days.

"Accept your fate, kid," A wizened voice grunted, snarling slightly at the stubbornness, "you've been selected, so for your own good and our people's, you'll go."

"Never! I won't care to learn hard enough! I'll just lounge around and play like a cabbage! No one beats the great Malik!" With a roar of triumph he wriggled free of the four men that were trying to pull him away and frantically climbed up a lamp post. Clinging protectively to the bar, he stuck his tongue out at his fellow Sheikah.

Link rolled his eyes at the scene and Navi giggled softly into his shirt. For some reason, Malik didn't want to become one of the High Mages anymore and instead wanted to goof off and follow Link around. Before, the High Mages attempted to persuade him into submitting, but now it came down to basic physical persuasion.

"You can't stay up there forever, kid," The oldest man called out, washing his palms against his dungarees, "when you get down, bam! You'll be in the trainee robes in no time!"

"I vaguely remember that Kakariko Village followed a law of freedom of will," Link said to Navi, "did I remember wrongly?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "No, you got it right. Kakariko Village does follow that law. It's just that the Sheikah Caverns do not. And as you can see here, if they want Malik to become one of their leaders, they're going to break and distort him until he fits the mould."

Link nodded. "Well, they're right: he can't stay up there forever. Reza's leaving this evening, and I'm going off the Death Mountain to forge my own sword. He'll probably come down to see us off."

That theory seemed less and less likely as Link watched on. Shouting like a monkey and throwing rocks like one, Malik seemed determined to stay up there and ward off the four Sheikah from approaching. When he ran out of rocks, he started throwing showers of dust, sending everyone beneath into a sneezing fit and giving watery eyes.

Aside from the raucous sounds from Malik's adamant beliefs, Kakariko Village was relatively calm. Link presently sat on top of the crate next to the peddler, who seemed to be having some success at selling little trinkets like the necklace with stone beads, each bead having on it a magic rune inscribed. Business was generally brisk, with the people passing by to glance at the wares and occasionally look questioningly at Link, but some of the times a woman would stop to admire a bracelet or a ring and haggle down the price.

The watch post was filled with its usual occupant, except for this time he had a large bell installed next to him and a bow and quiver resting against the edge. Little children played beneath the tall construct, slapping each other with paper fans in mock duel. Laughing, they ran off when the kind lady near the front of the village came out with a tray filled with refreshments, and scuttled back to play once they finished consuming the lime juice and biscuits. A little boy tired from swinging his fan like an axe and waddled off to watch Anju take care of the cuccos.

"Are you sure those necklaces work?" Navi asked curiously to the peddler, floating down to one of the embroidered versions. "I don't exactly see traces of magic tied around the stones."

"Now that it has been touched by a fairy, it probably would," the peddler answered back cheerily. "Besides, we're safe enough now – few people are stupid enough to attack straight when security has been cranked up to the max. My wares just keep people happy and me alive."

"Of course, maybe the enemy wants to lure the citizens into that sense of protection, so that he'll lash out while everyone's not as prepared." Link smiled and let the guy process that, biting his lip in thought and pushing his dark brown cap off his pale red hair. "He might however want you to think he'll attack now by other's sense of security so that you'll waste your resources defending against something that's not there, and attack when you tire. Either's possible."

The peddler looked at Link suspiciously. "You know a lot for being a child. How old are you?"

"I'm not so sure. Fourteen, fifteen?" Link counted his fingers, mumbling out a few numbers. "Let's see… I might have been born then, and if I was, I'll be… fourteen and a half." He blinked in surprise. "Wow, doesn't time fly."

Navi nodded sagely. "Yes, flies can be seen as the embodiment of time." She flicked her eyes to Link's look of exasperation. "Joke: can't anyone appreciate a bit of humour? Anyway, next month I'll be seven hundred and fifty-six years old." She smiled at his look of exasperation. "Doesn't anyone find anything funny anymore? I was joking then too. I'll really be one hundred and twelve."

The peddler looked at her in amazement, taking the time she wasn't hiding in Link's garbs or moving around to draw her. Maybe someone would think a picture of a fairy would be a good luck charm and hang it on their walls. "Is that a joke too?"

Navi bobbed in confirmation. "Yep, I'm only thirty-four. But I do know some fairies that live up to that age. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if the bookworm Hale is over four hundred years old! Fey beings can live to a nicely ripe old age. Some can live forever, if they've progressed that far."

Link whistled, impressed. "You never told me that. What do you mean by 'progress'?"

Navi shrugged. "Meh, no clue. Those that have gained immortality never tell the secrets. Take the Great Deku Tree: he's meant to be immortal."

Their talk was cut short when a squat man with a potbelly ran out of his shop, hollering his hands and yelling at the top of his voice. "Damn you thieves! Stay and rot in your Desert and leave my establishment alone!" Skipping away from his flailing arms were two Gerudos, cackling at his misfortune and each holding a piece of pottery tauntingly out of his reach.

"What's the matter, your lack of exercise getting to you?" One of them laughed delightfully as the man's moustache bristled from his failed attempt of snatching back his ware. "That would be your own fault, falling docile in your ways."

The other Gerudo nodded sadly. "Yes, I heard that the Sheikah that resided in Kakariko Village were masters of deception and stealth – much like us, in that sense. If this is what all the rumours sum up to though, we've been cheated of our play." She sighed with deliberate flair, and cavalierly tossed the pot away. The man dived to save it, and then had to scrabble aside to catch the other one as the other Gerudo decided he was no fun anymore.

"Damn you Geruds, damn you!" He roared out from his position on the ground. The two Gerudo walked off uncaringly, chuckling at some joke, which was probably him.

Link sighed in what sounded like disappointment. "If this keeps up, relations between West and East aren't going to improve very quickly."

The peddler sounded his agreement. "Yeah… two days ago, they were found fooling around in the Sheikah Caverns and stealing blueprints. Yesterday, three of them managed to dismantle parts of the windmill and run off with them. And now look at that: harassing the citizens. The sooner they leave, the sooner things get better."

There must have been a reason why the Gerudo seemed so prone to stealing. Reza alone didn't seem very blatant when she did it, really just nicking wallets, taking a few rupees, placing the wallet with a new owner and nudging both people. It was really to just cause havoc, and it seemed all Gerudo found amusement in that. But when more than one Gerudo come together, they seemed confident enough for the larger and more infuriating tricks. Link decided he'll have to ask Nabooru or Reza at some point.

With a glance at the sky Link jumped off the crate. "Well, it's time for lunch. Thanks for the chat," he waved at the peddler as he walked away. Navi took a few more seconds to scrutinise the runes etched on the beads before floating back to Link. Down below the two Gerudo had linked up with a larger detachment of seven, and the nine of them wandered off to Impa's house where they were staying.

You wouldn't have expected it of the house, but it somehow managed to fit bedding for just under thirty people and leave space for walking and working. Where the rest of the desert thieves slept Link had no idea, but Reza stayed in that house and that was all he cared to know about. Briefly he wondered whether he should go visit her, and decided to after lunch.

Lunch was a sordid affair, held in the confines of some basement in the Sheikah Caverns. With the diversion of food towards the soldiers and guards, there really wasn't much in terms of flavour left in the cooking, and even if by some miracle Link could enjoy it he wasn't allowed more than one serving anyway. War preparations were costing Kakariko Village more than they expected to pay.

The Gerudo had been spotted when one accidentally dropped a tube of charts and maps and it rolled off where someone spotted it. Nabooru soon admitted that her fellow Gerudo had been taking scripts and prints from the Sheikahs, but only to copy down their content and once it had been finished, they were replaced. Now that they had been spotted, few of them cared to act discretely, and waltzed through the Caverns without care, taking and replacing as they pleased. Such behaviour was getting on many people's nerves, and in lunch, coupled with the bad food and occasional flitting of red hair around the corner, the others around the table were willing to voice their opinions.

"I don't see why they're allowed to go wherever they please," one man snarled irritably, slamming his mug onto the table, "we're not allowed to even see their bloody fortress."

Others hummed in agreement. "I've heard tales that any man that gets inside gets locked up and does laborious work until he dies," one quoted, shaking his head in disgust. "Just because they're women they think etiquette will stop us from stopping them."

Another man snorted. "Bah, they're more man than some around this table. Anyway, they did help save us from the _thing_ that went on outside, so they're just having their bit of fun. Different cultures often seem barbaric."

The man with the mug shook his head angrily. "You're too passive, Tamm – all you do is make up excuses. They're desecrating our land, and laughing while they're doing it! We should show them a firm hand: no more pillaging the Sheikah Caverns!"

Tamm looked doubtful at that, but the other three raised their drinks in assent. "Well, you tell them that: I like my throat where it is. Besides, what're you going to do if they don't want to, Dirk? Force them out? I laugh at the thought!"

Link personally agreed with both Tamm and Dirk. They shouldn't let the Gerudo do whatever they want, but they shouldn't deal with them in such a non-respectful manner. It was all about culture. Upon completing his meal, he silently left after placing the dishes in the cleaning-up tray and walked down the passages that led to Impa's house.

"They're only talking about that since they know the Gerudo are leaving," Navi sniffed disparagingly, shaking her head, "but if they intended to actually put up a permanent residence, I don't think anyone in that group would raise a finger in protest."

Link chose to stay quiet and admire the architecture gone into moulding the tunnels. Somehow a mage managed to print a mana pattern onto an object and printed the tunnel shape. Given that the entire construct was roughly four metres underground and without a bar of support, the entire scheme was impressive. Someone had jokingly said that if all High Mages died, the magic sustaining the chambers will collapse and the rooms will follow soon. Link wondered how much of that was joke and how much worried truth.

On the house side, the way into the Caverns looked like a bookshelf, but from the Caverns to the house it looked more like a dead end with Sheikah and ancient Hylian texts engraved in a corner. Placing his right hand on one edge, he glided it across the smooth stone, searching for a small dent that would signify the catch to open. With a click he could hear the locking gears slither free, and placing his palms against the wall used the friction to push it aside.

It was all for safety reasons, of course: in case an enemy infiltrated the tunnels, they'll need to know Sheikah or ancient Hylian texts to manage to get anywhere, and then have to find the locks that sealed each door shut. Containment, they called it. Before the theory seemed impenetrable – after the Gerudo had sauntered in and out, the idea had soon fell to question.

His attempt at opening the door was aided when someone on the other side pulled it clear. Surprised, he stumbled forwards without the door as balance, and a hand snatching his collar prevented him from tumbling to the ground. Regaining his footing, he turned around to see an amused Reza.

"Finally, I thought you guys abandoned me," she stated with a light smile – something he found a bit queer, given how it only seemed like Nabooru the only Gerudo quick to show her expressions – and gestured for him to enter, "I've been bored out of my wits bouncing a ball against the ceiling." She pointed to the hammock to the side and the battered red ball resting in it.

"You seem awfully cheerful today," Link uttered, taking in her new garb of purple and black. "What's with the new clothes, and where is everybody?" He peered around the room only to see strewn blankets and pillows, wound up hammocks and the odd weapon leaning against the wall.

"Nabooru said she was buying food for the return journey," Reza answered, "and the rest are returning all the manuscripts we borrowed." She decided to ignore Link's cough at that. "They've been gone for over half an hour, and probably wouldn't return for another half. The clothes are why I'm happy."

Navi surveyed the colours and pattern. It was pretty much Reza's previous purple ensemble, except for now she wore a black sash at her waist and instead of purple trousers they were now a shade of black. "I didn't think you one to take interest in fashion," she concluded.

Reza laughed lightly. "Of course not; it's what the clothes represent, not what they are. I'm now a trainee to be one of the Black, the Gerudo Assassins." She gave an odd smile at the thought. "Imagine me: ghosting through the walls, solidifying, slashing out with my scimitar and ghosting away. Isn't that worth being happy about?"

Only a Gerudo would be happy at finding ways of killing people, Link thought but wisely kept to himself. "Isn't it a bit dangerous? You told me someone stopped breathing just trying to master the ghosting trick." Despite her more bloodthirsty eccentricities, a friend was a friend, and if things went Link's way no harm would come to his friends.

Reza waved the risk off. "What's life without a few dangers? Besides, what you did with the spirit coin gave me a jumpstart on all the others." She gave Link an analysing look, measuring him with a flat stare. "I don't know whether I want to kill you or kiss you. Maybe I can apply poisonous lipstick and do both at the same time." She laughed loudly at that. Link didn't. Shaking her head with laughter, she slapped his back to dismiss it as a joke. "Anyway, how's Blue Boy?"

"Last time I checked he was attached to the lamp post and refusing to get down." Link answered, grateful for the change of subject. "He's not very keen at becoming a High Mage."

"He's probably like most boys and tries to avoid positions of responsibility," Navi added, floating lazily out of reach when Link glared. "Of course, some find the call of power too alluring, and decide the responsibility's worth it."

Navigating the strewn sheets Reza sat down on top of the study table, indicating for Link to follow. Twisting her arm around Reza snatched her bouncy red ball, and rhythmically started bouncing it. "So what are you going to do next?"

"The initial plan is to make a sword for myself, and another sword for the Second Seal. Then I'll bring it over to Castletown to enchant and check up on Zelda and the Feral sword. After that, I don't have much in terms of plans." Link worked the idea through his head another time, and nodded.

"Yes, practice makes perfect. How much did you learn of Maira? Do you think you're good enough to create quality swords?"

Link shuddered at the name. "I learnt nothing and everything." He paused and tried that again. "To be more accurate, I learnt a lot, but while I was my learning curve dropped down and died a shameful death. But coupling that with what I was taught elsewhere, I'm pretty sure my swords will be among the best." Not Master Sword standard of course, but maybe close enough.

"Do you think you could make a pair of scimitars for me?" Reza asked casually, stopping her bouncing to look straight at Link. "I lost mine when I got zapped and need a new set. I'll pay well for a good job." She was about to go on to persuade Link, but he already nodded.

"No problem – consider the fire lily my get-well card and this my apologies. Consider it a gift: my services are free of charge. I'll make it the finest of my work, the finest in the land!" Link boasted proudly.

"Not very likely," Navi muttered, floating back down back to Link's cap. "I'm going to take a four hour nap. Wake me up when the sun turns red." With a bow to Reza she dropped the cap like a curtain, veiling her in her sleep.

Reza seemed pretty relaxed, and after giving her blade requirements to Link she filled up the time with bits of small talk. "I remember when we first met, roughly one and a half years ago," she said nostalgically, smiling at the memory.

Link's mouth twisted into a smile of reminiscence and a frown of pain. "Yes, you cut the bungee chord that dropped me into the Wolfos pack. It's funny to you, watching, but it was painful for me, fighting." Link added at Reza's chuckles.

She nodded, smirking slightly. "Yes, it was quite the display. One and a half years: where has the time all gone?"

That seemed just the case as they talked, the clock ever ticking and the sun ever moving. Eventually the half hour left ran out, and Reza herded Link out so that the Gerudo could pack without his interference. Before he left though, she forcefully twisted his around and placed her hands firmly on his shoulders. Surprised, Link found himself staring closely at Reza's golden measuring eyes.

"You first saved me from your mask," she said at length, softly like it was for his ears only, "and somehow gave me powers over a form of fire. You helped in the protection of the Gerudo Fortress and helped find the plant to cure me. Now you've offered to forge my swords for me, and at no expense." She pulled in closer, so their noses brushed each other. "I think I'll kiss you instead."

His eyes were wide before, but there were wider in surprise now when she leaned in and gently pressed her lips against his. After a while she pulled back, releasing his shoulders and smirking. "I'll be seeing you later." With a wave she turned around and entered the house, leaving Link staring blankly at the closed door.

_-S-_

The sun passed its zenith and travelled forth while the people under it worked on. When Malik ran out of dust, he went to throwing Deku Nuts. When he ran out of those, he resorted to picking pieces from the lamp post and throwing that. Eventually he dismantled his way down, and the men managed to catch him. Out of revenge for the Deku Nuts they gagged and tied him up, hung him on a spit and walked off with deliberate sway. His sense of stubbornness died from the onslaught of seasickness, most remarkable given that there was no sea.

Navi, with her ethereal bond to Link renewed, knew something happened, but Link wouldn't tell what. While they waited at the exit to bid the Gerudos farewell, she persisted in demanding for him to tell her.

The High Mages eventually grudgingly agreed to let Malik see his friend depart, but his ankles were tied together and he was handcuffed to his supervisor. After all, few people can travel fast hopping, and less can get far when someone is still watching.

"You won't tell me." Navi said. It was not a question.

"No, I won't." Link responded just as dully.

"Why?"

"Because it's not your business."

"What happens to you is my business. Tell me."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because nothing happened."

"Something happened, otherwise I wouldn't have felt it. So share."

"I'm greedy. I won't."

"You won't tell me."

"No, I won't."

"Why?"

"Because it's not your business." Link answered in a monotone. He looked up to where Navi was perched on his shoulder. "Do you get the feeling we're going in circles?"

Navi shrugged. "No. So tell me."

Link sighed in exasperation, and wisely chose to keep his mouth shut. Navi could keep going on and on, but he couldn't. Mentally he started preparing for what he would need to make the swords. Two scimitars, a single-edged sword and a standard claymore, ready for enchanting. While at it Link decided he might as well create a _kris_ for Zelda and some cooking knives to sell. The strange ghost really packed a lot into his head.

Link stopped in thought. His idea for the Second Seal was something like the Master Sword, but who said it had to be a claymore? If he wanted he could make a giant _Odachi_ or _Zweihänder_, or if he so wished a tiny _Gladius_ or a _Kodachi_. There was nothing in the texts that said anything about blade length and type.

In the end though he decided to stay with the basic design of a claymore – the purpose of the sword was use, after all, and more people would be able to swing the standard sword than some unique weapon from the recesses of a dead guy's library. Maybe he could be a bit creative, and create some of his own weapons – no one said he couldn't.

Navi nudged him out of his thoughts when the Gerudo procession arrived, Reza being near the forefront. Nabooru was near the back, just finalising a few deals with the resident shopkeepers. A few had gone off to pick up their horses, so the rest waited for them to return.

"How long is your training going to be?" Malik asked Reza, blushing slightly when she eyed the handcuff and the tied ankles. "They don't want me to leave for another six years minimum. Pah! I'll show them."

Reza smirked. "Who knows, maybe I'll be done in two years, maybe three, maybe ten. Don't worry Malik, I'm sure you'll see me again: maybe my first target will be you." Her smile gained a dangerous gleam, but before it could be seen properly fled quickly back into her smooth smirk. "Regardless, don't expect to not see me again."

Malik attempted to walk forward and shake her hand, but forgot that he was tied down. With a clumsy wobble to toppled to the ground, managing to pull his supervisor with him. After much cursing they managed to drag each other up, and Malik managed to ignore Reza's laughing eyes whilst shaking her hand.

By the time he managed to retreat without falling over Nabooru had arrived as well as the horses, and the Gerudo threw their equipment and saddlebags over their horses. Giving a mysterious smile to Link, she waved before following the rest of her Gerudo back to the Desert.

"I know something went on. Tell me." Navi demanded again. "It has something to do with Reza, doesn't it?"

Link rolled his eyes. "Since she lost her two scimitars, I've been assigned the task of forging her new pair." Not all the truth, but it was the truth. "Anyway, she found some of my offered ideas pretty amusing – slicing back some of the metal to create a rivulet in the back for lightness at the same strength, jagged curve-back at the tip to give a bit of grappling power and weighted base to compensate and allow for bludgeoning. I estimated it to be half as heavy yet twice as strong as her last pair, and she found the odds pretty funny."

Navi looked at him suspiciously, before nodding. With a cursory glance for sweat or any sign of lying she floated back into his cap. "Well, the forges are always hot and stuffy. Don't forget to wash your hair and get some water before you go." With that advice she nestled back into his hair.

Link pondered a bit more on weapon characteristics before leaving to do his own preparation. He had drawn a few sketches of what Reza might want, and finished with something that looked like cross between a cutlass and a scimitar with some of his own additions. He had gold dust and diamond sparks to spare: the weapon would be strong enough to break a sword, hook apart armour and still shred away with unbelievable speed. She had set the prerequisites such as the blade needing to be roughly equal in length to from her wrist to neck, and a maximum weight. Link was sure he could fit it all in.

It was one thing to imagine, but he wasn't very keen to go up and use his rented space in Death Mountain. The amount of time it would take to make her weapons, let alone his Second Seal, personal sword and cooking knives would send him way into the night. At least he could mass produce the knives and save time. With a despondent sigh he left to grab his necessary equipment. Link doubted that he'll return that night.

_-S-_

"I personally wouldn't bother with all your sword-forging," Darunia commented as Link piled the iron ore dust into the tub to be melted down, "but then again, we Gorons don't use swords. There are tales of one using the Megaton Hammer, and another wielding a giant cudgel, but never swords. Not many of us actually fight, anyway."

"That's true," Navi noted floating back so as not to breathe in any of the dust, "in the histories taught there were only four major fights that involved the Gorons in the past six hundred years, and except for two of them you guys weren't major players. If I can just ask, why do you keep haematite as dust? Doesn't that make it hard to use?"

Darunia rubbed his beard, pondering. "Maybe, it would be hard to tell. I would suppose so, but dust can be easily stored and transported in wheelbarrows. We rarely use it anyway, so most of it is ground to dust for storage. Doesn't Biggoron and Medigoron cope?"

"Yeah, but it takes them years to make anything." Link muttered to himself, pouring the final traces down the chute. Crouching down, he opened a small window in the furnace and stuck his hand in. Flames curled around his fingers as he summoned the energies of Din's Fire, and rapidly the coke caught the heat and started to smoulder as well. Quickly he pulled his hand out and slammed the window shut, moving over to pump the bellows.

"I just noticed, but this stuff is great training!" Link said cheerily as he pushed down to force the gases through. "By the time I'm done, if I can still feel my arms they should be strong enough to lift cows!"

Darunia shrugged. "I can send help, if you wish. Get some Gorons to do the hard manual labour – we're used to it, even though many of us choose to sleep instead." He proudly gestured at the walls. "Who else would have carved through all this rock?"

"I thought the Dodongos did it." Navi piped out. "They made Dodongo Cavern, didn't they?"

Darunia shook his head. "What was Dodongo Cavern was once the Goron Household," he rumbled out. His face didn't change expression, made of stone as it is, but his eyes gained a sad tint. "The grandest of our architectural works. We thought the Dodongos could be tamed or live peacefully next to us, but they were like parasites and overtook it. In the end the Gorons were forced out, and we had to make a new home up higher in the Mountain."

It was an interesting history, and Darunia did go on and explain what happened with detail, but Link was spending more attention towards getting the iron to trickle out of its ore and flux out any impurities he didn't want. Later, he'll have to remake it as steel, shape it, add needed gilding and edges and then reshape it once more. All in all, it would be a lot of hard work.

The Gorons did however supply him with their store of obsidian and any rock or gem he needed free of charge though. Out of respect, he managed to tune himself back to Darunia's speech, which had now turned towards the discovery of the Goron special crop.

"With our digging, we found some areas of our new cave hollow, and with small vents towards the surface. We believe it was natural erosion that made them, but we don't know well enough whether something earlier lived there." Darunia rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. "Anyway, what we found out was that a special plant liked to grow there, where it was dark and cool. At first we were wary of them – you'd be too if you found that one wrong step will blow up – but soon found the potential with them. Excavation became a lot easier when we managed to farm them."

Link nodded. "Yes, they do pack a punch, don't they? If they liked to grow in dark and cool areas, how did you manage to get some down when making that barricade?"

"You've noticed how quickly the fruit grows back," Darunia answered, turning around to pick up a bomb flower behind him. He was about to throw it outside, but Link took it from his hands and placed it in the furnace. With a muted roar and the furnace rattling, a trickle of iron started to pour out its designated path. The plant sprouted another fruit soon after. "Well, the seeds also grow just as rapidly. We had a few days to make the barricade, and it was enough shade for the bomb flowers to grow in. Give them a few hours after planting and you'll see the leaves sprout out."

Another Goron came in and whispered something into Darunia's ears before leaving. With a sigh he addressed Link, "There's a Hylian embassy up above that wants to meet me. They want to rent a patch of Death Mountain to test some of their new explosives, and also purchase our minerals. Don't worry, they won't bother you," Darunia assured, "but nonetheless I have to go. A Sworn Brother's job is always fraught with business."

And he left, leaving Link to process what he had in silence. Navi had fallen asleep again – irritatingly so because she had been floating in the water bowl when she did – and so now he spent his entire attention to making his swords. Personal sword first, scimitars second, Second Seal third and if he had time, cooking knives.

_-S-_

Four o'clock of the Day of Grass, fifteen day in the Golden month. There were no clocks in Goron city, so Link didn't know that.

The Falux Calendar, aptly named after the astronomer who determined the motions of the sun and moon. It consisted of nine months, each with forty two days in it and separated into the seasons of Twilight, Sunrise and Tears. Six weeks to a month, seven days to a week, and all named after some aspect of nature and the months after some deeply religious tones in the making.

That was more than what most people knew. If you were a scholar, you could tell the day from the general cloud cover, position of the sun and moon and the direction of the sea breeze. Otherwise, all the standard man needed to know was which season was good for crops, which will be the most rainy or warm and which days are most suitable to worshipping the Goddesses. It was mainly the town councils that owned a calendar, and not all of them knew how to read it.

That was a problem the academy in Castletown was trying to address, and fix public ignorance of the celestial bodies, among other things. They at present were focusing their funding on the new research into their 'polymer chains' and other theoretical gibbering, but the academy still allowed for education in areas like technology, mathematics, literature and anatomy. They even had courses dealing with breathing exercises, nutrition and culinary skills.

And that was what Link needed to know about the academy. He cared little for its grandiose name of 'Institute of Culture for the Acquaintance to Research and the Understanding of Sciences' a.k.a. ICARUS University. He cared less for their claims on a substance stronger than iron but lighter than silk. All he cared about was that they might – no _will_ – buy his made knives.

If he knew the time, he would have realised he worked for nine hours straight through the night pumping the bellows, checking the temperature, fluxing the ores, hammering the casts, heating and cooling the shapes, and doing whatever was necessary to make perfection out of lumps of red iron dust, gold dust, scattered shards of diamonds and indiscernible squares of obsidian. But since he didn't know the time, all he knew was that he had worked for eternity, was feeling very tired, couldn't feel anything after his shoulders and knees, eyes were burning, and would be a very, very, _very_ unhappy man if no one bought his knives. So if he had to threaten them to get someone to purchase them, he damned will.

If he had been any normal smith, it would have taken him days to finish what he had done. But normal smiths didn't have Goron given furnaces and forges, normal smiths didn't have the efficiency of some dead librarian planted in their heads and most importantly normal smiths didn't use magic to speed things up. Link was very tempted to sit down and rest his head against the walls for a few minutes, but didn't because he probably wouldn't wake up and the benches were covered with bottles that once held Volvagia fire and mana potions (not together of course – that would have been one nasty mix).

Navi was his own alarm clock. The moment she wakes up is the moment the sun rises. Not knowing what time it was, he did a safety check in making sure all the fires were killed, anything he could trip on was pushed aside or rolled under and sharp edges not pointing towards him. Doing that, he half fell half knelt to the floor, dragging his sword over to create the hilt.

It had to be said, the dead librarian's information did wonders to his skill. A wedge of leather and wood had been sliced cleanly when he stamped the sharp edge against it, and even through the rough treatment the blade had been undamaged. It was a good thing it only had one edge, and a slight curve to it, otherwise he would have sliced right through his foot.

Well, he had time to layer the tang. He'll have to buy more materials to create sheaths, but his swords won't rust. If the ghost's information was right, unless they were smashed by a boulder falling off a mountain, and even then, they shouldn't break either.

"I should sell the knives at a hundred rupees," Link's words stretched out, fighting down a yawn," no, make those one hundred and fifty rupees. I could… use the money. I wonder what Malon did with the… large sack Reza gave her… probably spending it on horse… supplies… or maybe cows…" Blinking tiredly he slapped his cheeks twice, shaking his head. He had work to do. Then sleep to work on.

_-S-_

Navi looked strangely at the dozing form of Link. It was already eleven in the afternoon, and he was still sleeping! Epona somehow managed to feel her rider's weariness and was taking special care in keeping the ride as smooth as possible.

Earlier on Link managed to drag his body out of Death Mountain, giving his gratitude and utmost thanks to the Gorons while moving at a bare shuffle. He had fashioned a rudimentary bandoleer for his cooking knives, just two pieces of leather tied to his belt with the knives stabbed into. He used his shirt wrapped around to swords to hold them, and stuck the two scimitars on the other side of his belt. Given all the steel he was wearing, it was no wonder he moved so slowly.

When he managed to reach the house, Link dropped a fat wallet full of rupees at her feet, gave her the order to buy more leathers, meshes and woods and where to find the vendors. Forgetting that she wasn't large enough to carry even a single rupee he chose to fall asleep, plonking straight onto the bed. Which proved to be unwise, given that he was still wearing the two scimitars and knives.

Of course, Navi was smarter than to try carrying the sack and risk severely injuring herself. Instead, being the wisest of the outfit, she flew off to find the sellers, lead them back with the best of their items and let them take the money while under her watchful gaze. For all her hard work and thinking, Link still had the incivility of not saying thank you! He just slapped the items into his saddlebag, blearily trundled out of the house and ordered her to get Epona! The nerve, to order!

Then again, he did stay up at night. Even though she slept in his face-washing bowl, he was kind enough to let her sleep still. Those swords looked pretty fancy, especially the two scimitars on his back. He really did a good job for Reza.

Navi still didn't believe it was just talk of swords that occurred between them while she was napping. Link had acted dazed when she woke up later – four hours later and still dazed – and blushed occasionally when she guessed at some things, whether out of embarrassment or decency she did not know.

Whatever happened, Navi still had her strong suspicions, and the mildest of them will mean Link will have one more girl after him. So that meant Ruto (which Navi was pretty sure he was trying to avoid), Malon, Zelda and now Reza. He was sure building up the number of admirers.

At present though there wasn't much to admire about him. She had to give him credit for sleeping straight backed on a horse ride, but you could still see the sleeping bags under his eyes, his drooping hands, limp muscles and haggard face. Little to admire, and a lot to pity. The works he went through… well, it was his fault.

"Yo Link," Navi called out, nudging his shoulder, "we're nearly at the gates. You better wake up."

With a jolt and startled grunt he woke up, doing the standard male thing of scratching. Disgusting. He looked at her blankly for a minute before processing what she said.

"Thanks Navi," he mumbled softly, peering at the stone walls that had defended Castletown from sieges decades ago. "We still have a bit of distance to cover. Wake me up when we're directly in front of it." Bending down, he patted Epona on her neck. "Thanks girl; you know what to do." Ruffling her hair good-naturedly he sat straight again and dozed off.

Navi rolled her eyes. Boys will be boys. Their three calls: sleep, food and itches, not necessarily in that order. 'Ah well', she thought mildly, 'Link has seen more action that any man ever will for a boy. He deserves to enjoy his youth.'

The idea of children carrying weapons was not foreign, but not well bode by many societies. No child was meant to be given an implement to kill, and no child should ever be killed for whatever reason. Even in desperation it was taboo to use children as soldiers. Yet despite that looked what happened to Link: a soldier that rose into the ranks to become a Hero. A Hero of Time. And at the age of ten. A soldier of the Princess, of the Goddesses, a soldier of Destiny. Those rights activists could get their minds around that. Why didn't they pick an older person? Why a child, who has never been exposed to violence, death or murder? Why not some older veteran, who has seen it all and can expect more? Why a child?

Navi had her own ideas, and the other fey folk she spoke to seemed to agree with her. The Goddesses need someone incorruptible to save the country, or at least someone not corrupted. Any man or woman will have faced sin and embraced him like a brother, but a child among children, what can taint his innocence? Taught by the peace-loving fairies and wise Great Deku Tree, where better to find your saviour? This child will be disgusted at the blood of war, and will never accept it, but he'll do it because it's what's asked of him, what's needed.

Of course, there were a few holes with the idea. Some legends stated that the Hero of Time was actually incarnations of the same spirit, born again at times of trouble. Others say that it was people of good heart selected by the Goddesses to receive temporary powers to right the evil of the world. Whatever it was, not all recorded Heroes were children, or from the Kokiri Forest. In fact, all but two were adults from the Sheikah Ruins, Gerudo Nomads, Zoran Legion, Goron Stronghold or Hylian Keep.

Of course, Link was nearly an adult when he saved the country. Maybe those were really children given the power over time, and were given an older body to wield the weapons more efficiently? People could only postulate.

She wandered back to Link's shoulder, giving her wings some rest from the continuously flapping. Castletown's walls were actually remarkably pretty, although few people seemed to enjoy its beauty. Nowadays there were more and more desperate fights at the walls, as small bands or merchant caravans hoped to hold back the Stalfos surges and pray that the drawbridge be opened quicker. Now it was becoming law that you don't leave if you know you're going to arrive at night.

It remained open in daytime naturally, but there were more guards posted than usual. They blockaded the way in as a wall of human flesh and steel carapaces, left fists slanted across their chests at the same angle clasping some ward and their spears standing ramrod in the right hands. The ultimate image of discipline.

Navi flicked Link's ear as they drew closer, and with a stir he arose. Patting Epona's flank in thanks he took the reins and started guiding her, rubbing his eyes to relieve the tiredness in them. At sight of the approaching traveller, the guards nudged each other and swivelled their formation so that they were facing directly at him.

"Good day, traveller, what business do you have in Castletown?" The figure in the centre said, raising his helmet to see Link better. "Royal affairs, message delivery or the exchange of wares and supplies?"

"Exchange of wares," Link answered through a fought yawn, hand darting up to cover his mouth. "I got some knives to sell."

The guards nodded and opened their formations partially. "If you would excuse us, but we need to pass a check across your person and items. Please stay still," the head guard said as four others walked around Link each holding a spear decorated with feathers and talismans. The feathers flapped in an unseen wind, and the talismans started glowing.

The main guard frowned slightly and the others pulled out some wards from their waist pouches. "It appears that you carry magical items with you," he declared, "could you please present them to us for inspection and confiscation."

Link stared blankly at the guard. "Sorry, inspection and what?"

"Confiscation. In the midst of these unexplainable attacks at night, the Royal Family has decided no magical instrument will be allowed in without their expressed permission."

Navi rolled her eyes, floating off Link's shoulder. Some of the soldiers jumped slightly as they didn't notice she was there earlier. She flew past the feathered spears and watched the talismans glow at her passage. "I radiate mana. Now, are you going to confiscate me and break the treaties between Hylians and the Fey?"

The guards looked at each other uncertainly. They had orders to let nothing magical pass unless the King permitted it, but what the fairy was saying sounded important. "Uh, no?"

Navi nodded sharply. "Good. Now this boy here, who is under my protection, radiates mana as well – he has been taught the arts of magic. You could take his items, his clothes, his horse and he'll still make your funny spears do whatever they do. Are you going to doubt my integrity by doubting my charge, which I have known for at least seven years, by not letting him pass by? Do you dare break the contracts written of old because of your flights of fancy?"

The guards really had no clue now. On one hand, this could be some prankster fairy that's trying to talk her way in, but they were no scholars and so didn't know whether her 'contracts' were legitimate things that they were offending or not. The head guard sighed. "We'll have to call the Royal Palace's magicians to verify your words. Sorry if we offend, but you must wait until then."

Link waved his hand. "Ah, don't worry about it," he said noncommittally, dismounting from Epona, "just give my name Link to the Princess while you're at it." Leading the horse out of the way, he squatted against the stone wall, taking the chance to doze off. The guards looked at each other again, and in a few minutes sent one of the younger ones to sprint off and deliver the message.

Minutes passed with the soldiers standing in confused silence. Here in front of them was a lad with a fairy – what he did to get one, they had no idea – and if they believed the fairy's claims, capable of doing magic, something that very few could ever hope to even tap into. He stated he was selling knives, yet it was visible that he had swords strapped to his horse, and no one carried that many around unless they expected to be relieved of some of them. Also his named seemed to tingle in the back of their heads, like it was something important…

The young soldier ran back, wheezing for breath. "The Princess Zelda has given him free entry into Castletown and the Palace. We should not call for the magician's presence or confiscate anything he has. The King has also supported this statement." The soldiers still looked bewildered, but did as they were told. When Link got up from his position, they let him lead his horse past them with their sincerest apologies. Since when did a merchant, a child one at that, had the grace to know the honoured Princess?

Castletown was as he expected it to be: noise clamouring over noise as hawkers yelled their wares, shoppers haggling and shouting. Smells of barbecued fish filtered through the air as one stall with heavy business tried to pull in more customers than it already had.

A slight difference was the amount of steel being carried, and mirrors. No one walked around a corner without flicking the mirror in a quick check. No one walked in a straight line without thumbing the hilt of their swords. No one stopped even briefly without making sure one hand was at the grip and one eye at their mirrors. Children carried small mirrors, whilst some adults used their swords for the reflective purpose. Link was amazed how so much bared steel hadn't invoked a messy fight already.

Taking his items from Epona, he led her to a stable before setting up his own stall. Not much of the businessman, he placed it in the shadiest corner and didn't care much for presentation. It was really just a flap of fabric supported by poles over a crate. Resting up the crate were his knives, glittering in the stray sunlight and passing gaze of the mirrors. Pulling up a collapsible chair, Link didn't even bother to yell out what he was selling, and most people walked right by him without noticing the shop was there.

That didn't stop him from listening in to the segments of their gossip and chatter. As it happened, they were nearly all pretty much talking about the same thing, the mysterious assassinations occurring over the Palace and Castletown.

"Dreadful, isn't it? They say he was impaled from behind. Someone had been aiming at his heart."

"Not just that, but the soldier had been murdered in broad daylight, with people around! And no one even saw the assassin!"

"Spirits haunting us of our sins, that's what. Bloody spirits, bloodier sins. I told you to repent, but did you?"

"Not spirits. Ghosts, nasty versions. They call this killer the Steel Ghost. No one even knows whether this killer is a man, or a woman, or even a single person at all! Great detective work going on, isn't it!"

"They say that mirrors are its bane. You see it with a mirror, and then it can't harm you. If you manage to make eye contact with it, it will suddenly materialise from its hiding place, and it can't move so long as you don't blink."

"Myths, all a bunch of myths. I don't see how a mirror will save you. Still, it pays to just be sure."

"What are you selling?"

"The doctors say that all the victims died of the same wounds, and guess that the weapon was a serrated knife. They also guess the real death was when the killer pulled the weapon out, and shredded the heart as the blade left. Nasty stuff."

"Excuse me, what are you selling?"

Link jolted in his seat, looking up to see a fairly young girl looking at him. Her brown hair was held back by a white cloth tied at the back of her neck, and her wide green eyes looked in askance at Link. Like everyone else she clasped a mirror in her left hand. Link estimated her age at around eight or nine.

"The finest kitchen knives you'll ever see," Link answered after a while, "you make up the advertisement though. I actually intended to sell to the ICARUS University, but decided that the local population get a taster of my works first."

His thought of what a little girl was doing alone was answered when a lady ran out of the crowd, placing her hand on the girls shoulder. "Little Robin, what did I tell you about leaving without me?" the mother demanded, looking sternly down.

"That I shouldn't. But ma," the girl whined, "you always take so long talking to the shopkeepers, it gets boring."

"No excuses Robin! You have to be aware of the dangers! Next time stay with me," the mother lectured firmly, before turning to address Link apologetically, "I'm sorry if my daughter caused you any trouble."

Link smiled reassuringly. "There were no problems. You have taught her well in the manners of courtesy." He nodded towards the girl. Wasn't Robin a boy's name? "Feel free to examine my wares."

The mother did so, although at first just out of politeness. She then spotted the swords strewn at his chair, and her eyes lit up. "May I see those?" she asked, gesturing behind him.

Link raised his eyebrows, but grabbed them and placed them on the desk. "You may see them, although I must warn you none of them are for sale." When she pointed at his sword, he pulled it out of the sheath and handed it to her point down. Maybe if she was impressed with his swords, she'll buy one of his knives.

For an average looking woman he was surprised at the strength she had to hold the sword, hand held steady and not showing any sign of strain. That sword weighed over four kilograms, with the centre of gravity a few centimetres up the blade from the guard.

She was startled when she raised the sword into the sunlight when it released a low whistling sound, but did not drop it. Moving it experimentally, she found that different speeds, directions and tilts of the blade resulted in different sounds.

"Those come from the air veins crossing across the blade and hilt," Link explained, swinging his hand across the sword's arc. "I initially made them to make the sword slightly lighter for the same properties, but it came with the pretty cool effect of acting like a flute as you move it around."

"Doesn't this make the sword pretty useless? A weapon is most effective when the target doesn't know its coming." The woman said, flicking the sword deftly and admiring the clear tunes the action made. The girl Robin sat down glumly, expecting her mother to delve into another long chat with the vendor.

Link shrugged. "Call it a novelty sword then. For me, it doesn't really matter: the weapon's mainly for defensive purposes, or pulling attention. Besides, wouldn't you find it scary if I charged at you with a singing blade?" The lady nodded slowly, a smile creeping across her face as she stared at the sword. The air veins were so small they were indistinguishable from the grain texture of the blade.

"How much do you want for it?"

Link blinked slowly, before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but it's not for sale. Could I interest you my selection of knives? I have quite the number of paring-"

The lady shook her head and stated the question again. "How much do you want for it? My husband used to be a soldier, and he taught me a few things. One of them was spotting a good sword. How much do you want?"

Link sighed. Some people were too stubborn. "Not for sale. I'll give you a discount on the knives, though."

The little girl Robin tugged on her mother's arm, but she was determined to get the sword. "Tell you what," she said thoughtfully, swishing the sword to admire its balance and sound, "I'll challenge you for it. If I win, you'll sell it to me. If I lose, I'll buy four of your knives at twice the price."

Yep, some people were too stubborn. "You do know I'll set an impossible price if you win."

The lady shrugged. "It doesn't matter. My widow benefits will more than cover it. Come on, or are you worried of losing to a lady?"

Now she was trying to goad him. Robin tugged harder at her mother's arm, but she stared straight at Link as if daring him to respond.

She wasn't a Gerudo, and no matter what her husband had taught her, she'll never match up to one. "Sorry, not for sale."

Robin pulled at the arm more persistently as the mother scowled at Link. "Coward!" she yelled out, pulling the attention of others. "Malingerer! Milksop!"

Before she was goading – now she was insulting. Link rolled his eyes, giving a pitying look to the little girl who was glowing red from embarrassment. Death did strange things to people, but he didn't expect it to turn a perfectly polite lady to playing out the part of a cucco.

"Please, lady," Link groaned, slapping his hand over his eyes, "you're embarrassing yourself more than you're humiliating me."

People from the sides seemed just as discomfited, calling out for Link to "just accept the blinking challenge" and "save her from such indecency." Sighing dramatically, Link stood up from his booth, picking one of Reza's scimitars.

"Fine, you got your fight," Link answered, giving a sympathetic look to the poor girl, "but be ready to pay a minimum of twenty three hundred rupees if you win, and twelve hundred if you lose." He brightened, and added, "Or you could just pull back your challenge."

The lady sniffed derisively. "Unlikely. Well, let's get going: the guards are already drawing the ring." Indeed that proved true, with two chalk lines drawn, one for the fighters to fight in and the other the safest distance for the spectators. Some seemed to know the lady and cheered her on, and some seemed to know the child and offered their condolences. The little girl propped herself on his crate, effectively guarding his items from opportunistic thieves.

When Link stepped into the ring she attacked, flashing the whistling sword out for a quick hit against his neck. Had it hit, it would have been decisive, but Link was one used to surprise attacks. Back-pedalling rapidly he darted out of range, letting the lady frown at what she saw as her own failure.

She pulled out trick after trick, pretending to swing to the left and reversing it to slam the pommel into Link, scooping down low to flick up, creating a tornado of steel and advancing. Link however stuck to his earlier statement: she was no Gerudo, and never came close to touching him.

Her frustrations grew with each failed hit, and the song sung a high pitched shrill as she attempted to smash her way past Link's defence. "Why can't I hit you!" she cried as Link calmly parried each attack. "My husband was the best soldier, and had the best skills! Why aren't they working?" In her anger she raised the sword for a powerful downward slash and forgot that it left her front exposed. Sliding in quickly Link got up close so that she would have space to bring it down, and drew his scimitar behind her back. His right hand balanced the tip and he pressed the edge gently but firmly against her spine.

"He might have been the best," Link replied with a cocky smile, "but I'm the best of _the_ best. Do you surrender?" She snarled down at him, and tried to shift free. He pressed the sword harder.

Sighing, she nodded glumly. Her hands dropped to her sides and the sword clattered to the ground, giving a soft whine as it fell. Looking disconsolate she said the words that seemed to burn her mouth: "I give up."

The crowd felt that the duel had been too short, and too one sided. Someone shouted at Link for not being nicer to the lady, and the person next to him shouted back that the lady had been reckless. The guards seemed a bit disappointed at the spectacle, drawing over sixty five metres of chalk on the ground for the duel to end so abruptly. The kid had been toying with her!

"Twelve hundred rupees is too much for a single person to pay," Link said, returning back to the booth with the scimitar and sword. Selecting any random two knives, he handed them to her wrapped in cloth. "Those will cost you five hundred rupees in total."

The lady was grudging to part with her money, and the child was eager to leave. Trying to make a little small talk, while she was counting out the rupees Link asked her, "So, who was your husband?"

She looked at him and gave a stare like that the answer should have been obvious. "He was the great Brand Maurai. Best soldier among the ranks, he was about to be promoted to the King's Bodyguard a few days ago." She stated that with pride, but with also a tinge of despondency.

"Oh, what happened?" Link asked as he completed the transaction.

The kid Robin looked a bit gloomier and the woman stonier. "He died," she said in a clipped tone, bowing stiffly at Link, "stabbed in the back by the Steel Ghost. He used my husband's blood to paint a warning on the nearby tapestries. Now, good day."

Link would have to ask someone else for what the warning was. That lady was still a pretty strange one, and Link was sorry for her loss. When she thought she was out of sight she hurled the two knives with her strength at a empty notice board, and was surprised when they flew straight and true, the point slicing in with a clean whisper. She examined them with renewed interest and Link wondered whether he did a right thing setting the balance for throwing.

Truth told the whistling of his sword was really a unwanted mistake. As the lady had stated, it made it pretty obvious someone was there if you were trying to be sneaky, and to keep it silent you will have to move it very slowly. Link was very good at seeing the brighter side of things though, and even if its practicality dropped down to near zero, the beauty of music made through a sword dance must be enthralling. Maybe with luck he'll be able to play the Song of Storms with his sword.

A glance at the passing crowd showed that no one else seemed willing to buy his knives, probably due to the price he set, most likely forgetting the terms of her deal was to double the price. Sighing, Link decided to return back to his idea of selling to the ICARUS University, for they were rich, they were idiots and paradoxically they would know what was going on with the Steel Ghost. As far as he could tell, it was a silent murderer that had a lot of myths made up about it.

Maybe Zelda would know. She sponsored the university anyway, so he might see her there.

_-S-_

A/N: Talk about a chapter full of nothing… I actually intended to get a bit further on, but the chapter size suddenly caught up onto me. Tried writing in a Tolkien-ish or Robert Jordan-ish descriptive style… takes up a lot of words, I assure you.

Well, Dude13, if you read this far, this chapter was for you. Your persistent bugging on romance has resulted in me to decide to do something. Now, if my story flows as I want it to, you can expect something more… 5 years down the line?

In case anyone was interested, by my calendar system it would make Link really 15 and a few months old in our yearly system, and Reza 16 and a bit. Malik is slightly younger than Link. Nothing important, but just in case anyone was curious…

Robin's mother and dead father should become more important in the next chapter, and something with the Steel Ghost should pop up. Don't expect an update for at least two weeks – got exams coming up.


	31. Blade's Reflection

came up with the hits system (although I must say, I don't like the new lookout) but hey! I've seen how my stats worked now… 21 people liked this story enough to add it as favourites! And my hits rake up to the hundreds! I feel loved…

Chapter 29: Blade's Reflection

If you were to ask Link about monetary issues, his general answer would have been a "huh?" As Hero of Time, whenever he needed money either he'll go out and kill stuff that ate people that had rupees, or people would kindly offer their meagre wealth to aid the downfall of Ganondorf.

That was then, before, in the future. Now, few monsters carried money around with them, and he wasn't going to stoop so low as to search their dung for the odd change. In this timeframe, Ganondorf hadn't risen to power, and so no one would have felt inclined to give money to a total stranger. He used to live off the monthly allowances courtesy of Zelda and the Royal Family, but that stopped a few months ago from some sort of tax disagreements up there.

Nonetheless, a person that lived off the lands and didn't pay any mortgages, taxes – he always moved before they found him, and beneath the calm façade Zelda was silently telling her collectors where to strike - rents or anything else that sapped a person of wealth, so had no need for money. Of course, in the odd chance that the land wasn't co-operative and two hours of exploring hadn't yielded any food sources, Link always kept a small sum of rupees around just in case there was someone nearby he could purchase food off.

But at the present, it had cost him an arm and a leg to get a deal with the Gorons for the ores (the forgery was free, the resources were not). Link normally wouldn't have cared for bankruptcy, since half the time he was, but now, contemplating which vendor sold the most food for less money, he wished he took the additional precaution of carrying around golden goblets and twenty-three karat gold lumps.

Selling the knives was a bust – people were more interested in his whistling sword, and got dejected when he refused to sell it. Aside from the lady with the little girl and two other customers, no one wanted to buy anything. That would normally have meant he would have four hundred rupees in his pocket, but Zelda finally managed to plan in advance – the tax collector finally found him, and added interest for the delay.

The sun had the grace to start setting when Link was persuading a crowd, its refracting rays dispersing the crowd as they bade their hasty goodbyes and muttered about dinner. With a call of vengeance to the sun, Navi floated tiredly back into Link's cap, deciding that her meal tonight would consist of celery, aubergines and cucumbers.

So with only fifteen rupees to spare, Link had to find a meal that had vegetables that only grew is eastern Hyrule and enough to satisfy Navi's odd quirks about the quality of food and his stomach.

Which brought him to his current position: three vendors had what Navi wanted – if she didn't get what she wanted, she would kick, scream, cry, throw a tantrum and leave a high pitched ring in his ears – all of them giving meals under fifteen rupees. One offered vegetable broth, and while the guy pooled out a lot he could use a few pointers in hygiene. Another offered bits of meat as well, but would only be enough for a snack at best. The final one gave an array of vegetables on a platter, was clean enough to satisfy Navi, enough to satiate Link, but would tax him of every rupee he carried, which would mean he would have to find some cosy spot in the streets to sleep. Goodbye the Blue Crow inn and its delicious breakfasts… hello street.

Sighing, Link decided that when he congratulated Zelda for finally nabbing him, he would most subtly hint that she open the gates of ICARUS University for people to enter and use the accommodation facilities.

It was hard to keep the argument's momentum going as he sorted through his vegetarian dish with his finger, nudging the chopped up celeries, aubergines and cucumbers to a side for Navi to eat and tossing the rest into his mouth.

Oh yeah, another bad thing about this meal: it was cold. Truly, Link was getting spoilt if he held a bias towards hot food. Frowning at the pickled onion clasped between his thumb and index finger, he swore to himself that at the next opportunity, he'll eat something wild. And not poisonous.

Finishing his section of his meal, Link nudged his hat gently to tell Navi that she could eat her part. For some strange reason, she came out wishing to eat chilli beans and green curry, but a decision was decided, and almost petulantly she devoured her portion.

"The streets?" she moaned when he told her of their financial situation, "Why can't we mooch off the Royal Family for the night?"

"Because," he replied tiredly, "with their new worries about security and stuff, it's now too late to pass the gates to enter the Palace. Anyway, why are you complaining? In a bedroom, field or alleyway, you usually sleep underneath my hat."

"Yeah, well, it's about principle," Navi muttered, fluttering off the disposable dish as he threw it like a Frisbee towards the bin. "Don't you have any, such as not sleeping on cobbled rock?"

As it turned out he did, but it was more attuned to sleeping away from garbage cans, in a corner where he could watch everyone that passed by and with shade against possible rain. Despite the Royal Family's best efforts, not everyone could be trained in a practice to earn a decent living, so Link had to share his space with a few others. Some chose to ignore him, others glancing at the bundle of weapons and knives he kept nearby.

"Self defence?" One asked suddenly. Jolting free from his light doze, Link looked at the man who spoke.

"Sorry, what?"

The guy gestured the array of weapons. "Self defence?" He repeated again. The guy raised one grimy hand to wipe the grit away from his rough beard before waving it around. "You know, with these sudden killings in the middle of the night. It's not safe on the streets, but then again it's not safe even when you're surrounded with two hundred soldiers." The man lowered his head down to his chest and muttered a quick prayer.

"Nah, it's just sales gone bad. I thought that people would be happy to buy some of my wares, but apparently not." Link sighed, managing to shrug despite leaning against a wall. "If it's not safe in the streets, why don't you find some place better to sleep?"

The man grinned, revealing a gapped set of teeth. "Ah, and this is why it's the safest. See, I figured that if the Steel Ghost was some rogue assassin, he'd pick the hardest targets to prove his strength. Therefore, the easier you are, the safer I am." He chuckled pleasurably at his logic. "Anyway, can't afford a better place, for no one wants a net weaver nowadays." With a forlorn sigh, he dropped his head back to his chest, and muttered a curse against large fishing industries and their monopoly.

"So what if this 'Steel Ghost' isn't a rogue assassin, but a random murderer or a purposeful killer?"

The man shrugged. "Ah, if he is a random murderer, then I'm as safe here as I am anywhere else. If the guy got a purpose in his murders, then he's not picking me because I'd be dead by now."

Link nodded. "Wise thoughts. It's a pity though; I was going to stay in the Blue Crow Inn, if I didn't run bust." Sighing at his misfortune, he shifted his shield to give a more comfortable position against the wall. "It was nice talking to you. Oh, and you can tell your friend with the brownish shirt that I've seen him eyeing my stuff, and he can't steal it."

_-S-_

The sky trembled in its anger, and released its sorrow upon the lands. The streets were flushed with the tears of Heaven, cleansed as it coursed between every pebble and every stone. The white walls seemed to cry with them, lines of dry paint cracking under the moisture and peeling off.

The rain wasn't the only thing that flowed. Diluted in the flowing waters, it was near imperceptible but to the keenest eyes, and Navi's were keen enough to see the red tint of life and smell the iron taste of blood. His giant umbrella created a thick curtain of rain, but Link could still see through it to the wavering image of the inn.

In a way, Link was lucky that he didn't have enough money to stay in the inn. Maybe it was done out of sick amusement, or maybe a random stab on Castletown's map, or maybe with intent, but someone managed to enter in the middle of the night and slay every occupant. There was a grim procession as soldiers with stretchers filed out, each carrying the bloated bodies of the dead, the damp white cloth failing to cover their slashed bellies and raked faces.

The killer didn't need leave any sign who he was, but then again no one needed to. The Steel Ghost. In a sick twist to its anonymity, painted on the foyer was the message 'guess who'.

If Link was there, he probably could have done something to stop the Steel Ghost. Armed and with more experience than his years belied, he probably could have been able to take it by surprise, and maybe with all the cunning and strength he could muster take it down.

Then again, within the space of at most six hours it turned a building of five dozen people into a slaughterhouse, without making a single sound. In the face of such results, Link had to ask himself if he really would have even survived an encounter against such a silent predator.

People watching the procession did so with blanched faces. Some threw up, others fainted, and some chose just to ignore it. With faces downcast they'd stride past, trying to block out the sounds of retching, soldiers slipping and bodies dropping against the wet cobblestone like a sack of potatoes. Parents caught a glimpse of what happened, and immediately changed directions, ushering their children in the new path.

"Honour to the departed," Navi said softly, finishing one of her prayers, "and peace to the slain. Let vengeance lie in the hands of the living, and rest in the expectation of justice." With a sorrowful shake of her head, her flight wavered before she tumbled back to his shoulder.

"That's the birth of another set of Stalfos," she murmured, almost trying to convince herself to act nonchalant. It wasn't successful, and she broke down into tears, sobbing against his collar. "Why does it kill all these people? Ganondorf killed of any threat, but spared those that served. This – this had no meaning! No meaning! No mercy! A pitiless slaughter with no point!"

Link sighed, gently stroking her with his index finger. It must have been a part of her fairy heritage, the remorse over the deaths of any sentient being. A breach of right, she once called it, but never explained. Over the years she managed to get used to the killing of malignant creatures, for evil thoughts proved that the creature could think but had to die because it would interfere. The deaths of more humane races affected her more deeply, but could be suppressed by the consideration of purpose.

In the fey world, everything had a purpose. Everything from a blade of grass to Hylian civilisations, they all had a purpose. Life flowed best when that purpose was fulfilled, but could still continue whether out of free will somebody decided to go against it. But any action done without a purpose, that was what the fairies saw as the greatest sin possible. Coupled with the extinguishing of lives and amusement in it all, it was more than enough to make a fairy cry.

"Let vengeance lie in the hands of the living," Navi repeated again. Looking up suddenly, she tugged at Link's ear to get his attention. "Avenge them," she said. It was not a question but a command as strong as Heaven's Law. "They will not rest until someone does. You're the only one capable. Avenge them."

Lightning cracked the sky, illuminating her tear streaked cheeks and furious eyes. Thunder rumbled soon after, a premonition of darker times ahead. People started to speed up their pace as the torrent of rain increased, but Link stood still underneath his umbrella looking at Navi's face.

"Soon, they will get their peace," Link answered softly, "but we must look-"

"No buts," Navi interjected, tugging at his collar, "you must."

He smiled sadly, turning his gaze back to the bodies being carried out. That one was a middle-aged man, could have been handsome if he had a face, and probably had a wife somewhere. There was a woman, no older than twenty five years of age, who had her aspirations and hopes silenced with the passing of a phantom. This one was most likely the inn owner, although the blood made her hair colour hard to tell.

"I will, Navi, I will."

Link still had a job to do though. He would need to enchant the Second Seal, and would as such require Zelda's help in that first. The Steel Ghost would just have to come at another time.

At least the dead can't cry, for the living did enough for decades to come.

_-S-_

The rain soon reduced itself down to a mild drizzle, but many people unsurprisingly chose to remain indoors. Where it would have been bright and lively, Link was the only one around to navigate through the empty streets in the shade of the clouds.

The shops didn't open, partially out of mourning for the dead but most likely out of fear. It was so far an unreasonable fear: the Steel Ghost only struck at night, and most likely due to the shadows covering it up and less people alert enough to notice it. As such, it would be safer to keep the shops open to let light filter in and have the safety of a large crowd, and it was already proven that sealed doors and windows didn't bar this man from entering.

Passing down Castletown Street, Link noted that the soldiers managed to clear out the Blue Crow Inn and had placed it under inspection, although he could not see anybody about working. Meagre barricades had been set up around the entrance to keep the public out, but was done more out of tradition than for purpose, since no one wanted to even get near. No one managed to scrub out the blood painted message on the foyer yet.

After her bout of crying Navi retreated back into his cap for an indefinite nap, asking him only to wake her up when there was an emergency. Link still had to carry around all his weapons, and with the knives strapped on his belts and legs, swords against his waist and shoulders and his assorted array of his bow, hookshot, shield, hammer, boomerang and pouches of other stuff some mistook him as the Steel Ghost, trying to discreetly fade into the background or shut their windows while never taking their eyes from him. He couldn't really fault them, for what kind of lunatic would carry over thirty kilograms of metal and walk around like it was nothing? Anyone that strong must be unnatural like the sudden deaths people suffered.

Thankfully the ICARUS University was still open and Link could enter without needing to pass the tedious process of registering with the guards. As he folded away his umbrella, Link wondered why there were less guards than usual, for normally when he came the corridors were filled with patrolling guards. Now it was just the odd number at the entrance. They must have donated the soldiers off to help deal with the issues back in the Palace and Castletown.

As he briskly walked down the hallway, he came across a face he didn't expect to meet. It wasn't just the face he didn't expect, but the expression. "Tylos!" Link called out, waving at the shuffling sentry.

Tylos turned to look at him blankly, taking a few minutes to comprehend who was calling him. Upon remembering he cracked a feeble smile, waving back tiredly. "Oh, hello Link. Good to see you in good health."

Link wished he could say the same for him. Before Tylos was a active, hopeful young man with energy to spare, but now he was a bedraggled guard than slouched and seemed on the verge of yawning and crying. It was a drastic change, and Link tried to avoid looking at the eye bags Tylos had. "What're you doing here?" Link asked in a friendly manner, shifting all his items to one side to make space for his arms to help carry some of Tylos' books.

"Remember how I said I would be a poet?" he chuckled lightly, pointing at the manuscripts he held in his left hand. "Well, the University seemed like the best place to start. And with the movement of soldiers around here back to guarding the Royalty and Castletown, well, they decided I'll be both a poet and a guard." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I don't get enough sleep this way."

Link clucked his tongue, shaking his head. "Damn, that must be tough. Don't they have any other guards? I mean, a tired guard is just as useful as no guard at all." That was not necessarily true, since a tired guard could still ring an alarm bell, but that required a guard to see the intruder, and by present accounts the Steel Ghost was invisible.

Tylos nodded slowly, counting off his fingers. "Yeah, they do. But they only come around when the Princess stays. Otherwise, it's just me, those two snoozing guys out front, and three others."

Link sighed. "At least there's nothing valuable stored around here." Navi in his cap might have mumbled the words 'knowledge and the people' but it was too garbled to be sure. "Hey, is Zelda around today?"

Tylos shrugged. "I don't know. If she was, I would expect two guards stationed at every door and six in the room she's really in." Casting his arm to encompass the empty corridors he shook his head apologetically. "Given the lack of such, I guess not."

"Ah well, if she's not here, she's probably in the Palace," Link said with a bit of a pout. "Where is everyone else, for that matter? I thought this place would be crammed with people testing cucumbers for light."

Tylos chuckled at the joke before pointing vaguely to his left. "Eh, they've all gone to the courtyard somewhere over there. Some guy stated that he figured out the science behind drawing latent mana from the earth, and went there to prove it. Everyone went to watch." He laughed caustically when gesturing to himself. "Me? Well, they told me to make sure no one left a door open or left a toilet un-flushed." He shuddered slightly. "Bah, what do they think I am? I'm a guard, not a janitor."

Link laughed and clapped his should in good camaraderie. Internally he frowned from Tylos' small tumble from the pressure – he used to be stronger. "Well, let's say that no one used the toilets recently, and were courteous enough to close their doors. Come on now, I don't want my visit here to be a waste: let's see this man's science."

Tylos looked at Link's arm and asked softly whether he grew taller, but was towed away at Link's striding speed before he could get an answer.

If Link cared to, he could have marvelled at the money spent on architecture. The support beams at the wall edges rose to bend in an intricate arch supporting the concave ceiling, detail of ancient Hylian scripture so lovingly inscribed onto the supports. The marble walls managed to create a rippling scene around each door, tricking the eye to imagine the stone morphing into mahogany and then later into brass. The great murals that were so painstakingly painted onto the walls carried on the drawn stories of the mosaics of the floor.

If Link cared to, he could have stopped and absorbed the sophistication of architecture and art of the place. If Link cared to, he could have expanded his senses to probe for the residual magic that would have gave evidence to magician aid not unlike those in the Sheikah Caverns. If he was so inclined to, he could have adapted his echo magic used to stabilise Reza's condition earlier to check the resonance of the past magic to find the age of the building.

Alas, Link didn't give a hoot about the building of buildings, nor did he realise he could have done such things. All Link really wanted to do right now was bring some life back into his friend's weary demeanour and if some science behind sorcery might do it, so watch it.

His more present concern though was the reading of the signs and arrows that seemed to point in circles. Left for the Residence Library, Reading Chambers and Music Hall, right for the Dormitories, Seventh Class of Postulation and Literary Analysis Quarters. Down the stairs and left for the Runic Courtyard. Ah, so he had to go down, for the last sign pointed towards the roof. But wait, it said left, yet when he pulled Tylos to the lower ground, the new arrow pointed forwards and then right.

Blinking in contemplation, Link uttered a mild curse and shook his head. "How the heck do you navigate around this?" He complained, slapping his knuckles against the brass sign plate. Link withdrew it hastily from the small dent made, but continued showing his disgruntlement. "Left, then right, then right, then left. These things never make sense! I could probably just ignore the signs and walk straight and have a greater chance of reaching the courtyard!"

Tylos coughed slightly. "Well, yes, you could. See the faint sunlight there? That's the courtyard. The sign plates were swapped around in the belief that any real student will know his way around, any guest will be escorted and any infiltrator will get lost."

Link shook his head in exasperation, but this time let Tylos lead. It was unfortunate that he appeared slightly winded from the twenty minutes walking briskly through the institute, but life was life, and Tylos should be able to bounce back in no time.

When he said that everyone attended, it certainly looked so. The scientist and his apparatus for safety reasons wished for an eight metre radius of blank space, leaving the spectators to stand huddled around the crudely drawn chalk ring and above in the balconies.

The scientist was in the middle of explaining the theory of his experiment, flailing his arms in wild gestures to his equipment, himself and the ground. Most people seemed to enraptured in his erratic form of speech to notice the two of them, but the reflective properties of Link's numerous blades were enough for them to shuffle aside to let both of them proceed to the front.

"…So this will involve the biometrics within this fancy gadget here to acknowledge my intended intrusion and so expand upon my desired course of activity. Please expect uncertain aberrations when this happens, for within the past due fortnights of experimentation no two have met the same results. As a final note to go in accordance of legal law and limitations, I ask duly: does anyone have any issues, problems, moral or ethical, with the tampering of magic and entry of science to discover the uncovered?" It was a rhetorical question, since the scientist didn't really expect a 'no' from a crowd that gathered to watch. Most of the fellow students and teachers were interested in the project, and the guests wouldn't have come unless they were too.

A few seconds passed before the scientist nodded, presuming everyone's silence was his expected 'yes'. However before he could touch his equipment a slithery voice answered, an etched rasp akin to sandpaper against stone. "I do," it guttered darkly, and with a surprised cry the scientist looked at his chest, where a bloody hole materialised.

People screamed at the unexpected gore, but those opposite Link shrieked as they pointed at him. Panicking slightly, Link glanced at himself to see what they were so afraid of. Thankfully it wasn't him, but his blades. Off their gleaning surface was the reflection of the impaled scientist, glasses askew and shirt soaking up the blood. A two-foot metal spike skewered through his chest, held by a being hidden within his shimmering robes, the only thing visible of it being the bony, silvery hands that clutched the stake.

With a sick feeling in his belly, Link dimly realised he found his Steel Ghost. Drawing his sword, it was time to make good of his promise to Navi, to the people, to the dead. People were screaming in their exodus, but the Steel Ghost seemed content to keep its weapon wedged in the scientist and watch everyone try to leave.

With a shrill whistle Link raised his personal sword, slowly lowering to point it at the Steel Ghost, using its reflective surface to keep it in sight. With dark mirth it pulled out its spike with a twist and answered Link's challenge.

_-S-_

Din's gift of the sun and earth, providing warmth to survive and light for growth. Farore's tribute of the sky and waters, granting the starting point for life to exist and maintaining the flow of the vital fluids. Nayru's order of law, binding the lands by her commands of gravity and equations of force. Without one, nothing could have survived. But with all, growth could occur in the grand existence and be cultivated to survive any perils.

The Haunted Wastelands was one prime example. The usual inhabitants of Leevers relied on the safety of the sands to protect them from the harsh heat, only surfacing to strike when they smelt food. The Gerudo Keep, placed so close to the edge of the Wastelands, suffered the same bombardments of light and heat in day and without the protective blanket of clouds, faced the biting cold at night.

This night was particularly so, but the defensive stone walls and wooden ramparts those indoors didn't feel its bite as badly. Nabooru however decided that training in spiritual magic was best done under the moon sky, and so her array of students had to grit their teeth and endure it.

Given the amount of energy it took to 'pull' your body into non-existence, so to speak, the amount of other items you took with you had to be reduced. As such, no one was allowed to carry a weapon and had clothes tailored to be sufficient enough for decency but little enough to reduce the strain. Coupling the flimsy garments and the frosting winds, Reza's teeth were chattering more than gritting.

"Remember," Nabooru warned, waving her finger as she would to admonish a child, "you must remember to _breathe_. Sounds stupid, I know, but there've been problems before, and I don't want problems now. Just draw yourselves in and care first about breathing, and then about maintaining the veil."

For safety reasons Nabooru chose that only one person will try the trick at a time, and they will only do so with her supervision and contact. There was now a smaller chance of the person dying from trying, but a greater chance of the person dying from cold.

Nabooru had mentioned that Reza's near total conversion of her soul into spirit magic would give her an edge over the rest, but Reza wondered how much help it would be. After all, despite having a larger pool of magic (apparently all her mana had been converted too), wouldn't it mean that she ran the risk of spending her soul? What would a body without a soul be like? Dead, or Undead? Reza particularly had an aversion against her body being used in some necromantic manner.

"Alright Reza, you're up," Nabooru called out as the previous student tottered away, body layered in sweat and looking very drowsy. Two others went forth to help her return back to the group since she was stumbling towards the wrong direction.

Suddenly as she stepped forth Reza could feel the eyes of everyone else watching her. She knew that none were out of spite or hate, but merely curiosity or encouragement, but suddenly felt the mild fear of failing. It was what they expected – none succeeded on their first try – yet they heard the events near Zora Domain and wanted to see what happened.

Nabooru watched her calmly, placing her hand on Reza's shoulder and nodding. The theory behind the skill was far too complicated for Nabooru to explain, so she only pulled out those she believed that had enough spirit magic and intuitive grasp to master the art.

Breathing in deeply, Reza closed her eyes and tried to follow the meagre amounts of help Nabooru had to offer. Cast your mind into yourself, and search not for the body parts that respond but the areas that don't. There lies the magic that distorts the space around you. It is a slippery thing, pulsing and dancing through your body like blood but only coalescing at one point, something Nabooru chose to nickname the void. There you mast twirl your concentration like a net and trap it, and once it was held within the grasp, invisibility on a greater scale is achieved.

The search for the part that didn't respond was the easy part, the harder one determining which part was the magic, the rest just an unresponsive body. To Reza, it appeared that her whole body under deep surveillance was snoozing away, but it that wasn't the case when she shifted her foot to make sure.

It seemed impossible for her. Choosing to select a random 'emptiness' to grasp, it always slipped from her mental nets, squeezing out before her mind could entrap it and swirling like water into the rest of the void. The void itself pulsed, seemingly giving the energy for what she hunted for to slip away. Nabooru mentioned nothing about this, where the entire world shook and changed with the beat of the heart.

Suddenly Reza was struck by thought. Nabooru wouldn't have mentioned it if it never happened before. There were no known cases of a near total soul to spirit magic conversion. Maybe for others the void was one coalesced point, but for Reza perhaps it was everything.

It was a wild shot, but there was little else Reza could imagine to be the cause. Inhaling deeply, she pictured her mind not as a net, but as the bait. Something that the magic would answer to and follow towards. If she couldn't get it, it would get her, and from contact…

Things happened too quickly for her to comprehend. One moment she was calling the spirit magic, the next her eyes blazed open to gaze at the crumpled forms of her classmates, some coughing heavily and others looking a bit green. Nabooru stood a few feet from where she once was, breathing laboriously and Reza herself was splayed on the floor a few metres away from Nabooru.

"Well," Nabooru muttered, trying to reign control over her body, "we know that spirit magic and other bodies don't mix." Looking at Reza, she pointed to the bowled over class. "Whatever you did, next time don't do it _through_ them."

Despite their upset state, a few of the Gerudo looked at her with greater respect, impressed. For one fleeting moment, on her first try she managed to grasp the void.

_-S-_

Upon reflection, of all the weapons to pick, it was probably a bad idea to select the one that whistled. With a knife in one hand and a sword in the other, it was all Link could do to dodge the attacks of the Steel Ghost.

It moved too fast and gave no respite. Maintaining its view from the reflections off his knife and sword only gave small glimpses of the being, and Link had to improvise and imagine where the rest of its body would be. Eyes frantically scouring his swords to find its spike's location, he only caught its sight in time to deflect it with his sword and roll back.

The Steel Ghost chuckled darkly, taking the time delivered from Link's retreat to flail out at a viewer who didn't flee yet. Some in the upper balconies seemed transfixed at the sight of Link fighting a ghostly enemy, rooted on the spot with their mouths open where they forgot to scream.

Cursing, Link sliced the harnesses and belts holding the rest of his blades on his body. Like an Iron Knuckle shedding its outer skirt, Link needed to doff the extra weight for the additional speed. Flicking his knife in a fleeting search for the Steel Ghost, he sprinted forward for a straight thrust.

Link knew it wouldn't work anyway. It wasn't meant to. With a sharp shriek his sword zoned in, but the Steel Ghost turned in time and parried it with its spike, still moist with the blood of its newest victim. Link briefly wondered how it would look like to those foolish spectators, to see a boy in green fight a blood smear levitating in the air.

His feint did its job, for the Steel Ghost had pivoted on one leg and its main weapon was fighting the pressure applied by Link's sword. With a quick whisper Link charged a small amount of mana in the patterns for the Web of Strings, and a sliver of wire darted out, rebounding off the stone mosaic to wrap around the Steel Ghost's leg and snaked up, entwining its left arm to its body. Dipping his knife down to keep a view on the spike, Link withdrew his sword for another attempt to strike, yanking the wire to topple his opponent.

What Link didn't expect was the weight he had to move. Navi had flitted out of his cap earlier and was shouting something, but all Link could hear was the Steel Ghost's dark mirth as it gripped his wire and tugged back, stake ready to impale his surprised victim. With speed born out of desperation Link severed the wire with his knife and raised his sword in an attempt to block, trying to redirect his momentum in another direction.

There were drawbacks to this move. With his knife pointing another direction Link could no longer see his opponent, and he made the mistake of looking at the air the Steel Ghost hid in. There was a jarring bounce against his sword, a sound of heavy fabric swaying and a piercing pain in Link's left shoulder. Had Link delayed in his movements or the Steel Ghost aimed slightly lower, his heart lung would have been punctured, writing the fight's result in stone.

With a cry Link staggered back, dropping his knife to clasp his shoulder to stem the blood flow. Belatedly he realised that the Steel Ghost was out of sight, and ears screaming in hunt of sound he ducked out of instinct, swinging his sword in a wide arc in hopes of catching something. A sharp gust materialised above his head, knocking his cap off. Link's sword struck something alright, but it felt like he was trying to cleave through granite as the steel robes swayed to absorb the impact.

Navi darted suddenly to the ground, and Link's eyes followed her to the scimitar he made for Reza. Its reflection showed the spike raised above his form, gaunt muscles tightened in preparation for a swift down stroke. With a startled curse Link dived forward, dropping his sword to tackle the Steel Ghost to the ground.

It definitely didn't expect that, proven with its fall. To the spectators, it looked like Link was wrestling some imaginary foe, but to Link who roughly brushed his thumb against its form to find its arms to pin down, this imagination was all too real.

The Steel Ghost reversed its grip on its spike, trying to stab Link's arm. His sword however provided the reflection needed to see this action, and dropping his elbow down managed to pin the arm down. The sudden action aggravated his shoulder wound however, and the Steel Ghost took his roar of pain as an opportunity to shove him off.

Before contact was totally released, Link delivered one final gift. Clasping onto its robe, Link's eyes darted upwards and met the Steel Ghost's own gaze. Like a ripple its entire form fazed into view, and it was surprised as its invisibility magic against Link was broken. Link smiled grimly and pooled his mana in his hand.

"Din's Fire!" Like a breaking dam all the mana he could muster surged free, converted by the spell into the most potent fire magic the Goddesses created. Cascading off his arms, it writhed across the Steel Ghost's form, ensnaring it like dragon's breath and licking past any crevasse and ridge it could find. In a few short seconds its entire being was wrapped in the purging fires, and with a shriek it flailed, swiping its spike to detach Link.

Link however released his hand earlier, although not to avoid the spike. Heat conducting across its steel robes it started to burn his fingers, and reflexively pulled them back. The spike only managed to graze his palm, the heat off it lacerating the wound as it passed.

Link stumbled back, eyes burning from the effort of not blinking to keep the Steel Ghost's entire form in view. His right hand would have difficulty holding things and his left shoulder was injured. As a trade the Steel Ghost was sweltering under the lingering heat of Link's intense magic and seemed stuck in the decision of dropping its robes, removing it of the pain but also its main protection or keeping it on.

Very slowly Link shifted sideways, muscles screaming as he grabbed the hilt of his sword. The Steel Ghost became aware of Link's presence from the low hum the sword released, and stumbled back into a ready stance.

"Fool," it snarled, and charged forwards.

The sudden burst of speed broke eye contact, and its magic soon shaded it from Link's view. It however didn't prevent Link from seeing the heated air surrounding it, where view was distorted. With a sharp jolt left Link slashed outwards, catching the Steel Ghost in the chest. The screech of metal against metal arrived as the blade worked its way through the robe but failed to complete pierce it.

With the sword's reflection Link could see the Steel Ghost's angered counter-stroke, its spike careening out to stab at Link's neck. Luck and momentum was on his side though, and with just a few centimetres to spare the stake missed his throat, but the arm didn't.

Like a hook it smashed into Link, toppling him. With a strangled cough Link tried to get oxygen through his battered windpipe, but before he could do more than inhale the Steel Ghost was upon him and purposefully returned eye contact.

Through the heavy cloak Link could see its eyes, red with seething anger. The heat still emanating off its robe was suffocating the air around him. It smiled grimly and raised its spike right above Link's heart.

"You will make a good Stalfos, boy." It sneered and rose its arm.

Before it could lower it a knife suddenly whizzed into existence, blade snapping as it broke against its robe. The knife managed to weaken the steel fabric enough as another knife followed on, plunging through the protection to dig underneath the Steel Ghost's armpit.

With a shriek it stumbled off Link, breaking eye contact again. All Link could see was the knife yanked free and tossed on the ground, and a growing trail of blood fleeing from the area. Turning to see his saviour, Link was most surprised to see Tylos and the girl Robin's mother watching the blood trail with more knives ready to be thrown.

With the threat definitely gone, Link relaxed his muscles from the strain he placed on them. A wave of pain washed over him, leg muscles crying at the amount of dodging he did, arm muscles screaming from their injured strain.

"Well, looks like I did a good thing," Link muttered as Navi floated to his shoulder to attend to his wound, "making those kitchen knives balanced for throwing." Turning his gaze from Tylos and Robin's mother to the still watching spectacles, he called out, "Maybe some help here?"

That jolted them into action, Tylos rushing forward to see what he could do for his friend, Robin's mother doing so as well but at a more sedate pace. Rather than delivering stretchers, anaesthetics and healing salves as Link hoped, the crowd instead clapped. It started with a single man's slow applause before growing into a two hundred bodied ovation, complete with chants and jumping people.

"You people are idiots," Link muttered finally before deciding unconsciousness would be the better company.

_-S-_

"Hoo boy that was tough," a female voice spoke out, and Link could feel a moist cloth rub against his forehead.

From all his bouts of unconsciousness, that voice was all too familiar. "Hello Farore," Link groaned out, opening one eye. Said Goddess was sitting on a wooden stool, tending to his forehead with a nearby pail of water and several towels. "What's with the wet cloth?" Link asked, pointing at the one she rested on top of his head.

Farore shrugged, taking it off. "No idea, it just seemed right at the time." With a wave the pail and towels disappeared, leaving Farore with her seat and Link on his bed. It took him a few moments to realise he was on a mattress, and a rather comfy one at that.

"I don't know whether to congratulate you for your use of Din's fire or slap you," Farore sighed, shaking her head. "On one hand, literally, you fried all your nerves from the heat. I had to pull up a few favours from Nayru and Din to return your hand to a more useable state. On the other, it managed to anger the Steel Ghost so much it was blind to everything else but you, and the rippling air effect allowed those two to successfully hit it."

Link shrugged, and then remembered he had a shoulder wound. Fortunately when with Farore any physical ailment could be ignored, so he paid little attention to it. "Say, what is the Steel Ghost anyway? If the heat killed my nerves, how did it manage to still fight on after that?"

Farore grimaced, shivering slightly. "Let's just say there are some arts so dark that only the Black King endorses." Standing up she removed the stool for a long glowing passage, pacing down it slowly. "Navi hit the spot earlier on. The Steel Ghost kills people to raise them as Stalfos and other undead beings." Turning to look at Link, she added, "The guy's a necromancer, one who pledges his soul's service to the Black King. As such, he's not really alive, so dead nerves don't do anything to a partially dead body."

Link shuddered. "Creepy."

Farore nodded, turning away to summon a well to see through. She frowned and softly murmured, "That lady's search for revenge will bring her to dark places." Before Link could fully comprehend it though the well dissipated and Farore walked back down to examine Link's shoulder.

"You should be thankful that the stake wasn't a poisonous one," she uttered, summoning back her stool again, "appears the guy likes his victims to die from brute violence."

"Thankful?" Link asked incredulously. "I'm thankful that so far there's only one of him." Pausing, his eyes widened slightly. "There is only one Steel Ghost, right?"

Farore nodded, pointing to the spot her well once was. "As far as I can tell, there is only one. But enough about such grim matters," she said suddenly, pulling out a bowl of chicken soup and a spoon with baby chicks imprinted on it, "you need to heal, and I have several stories to tell." Looking at Link's uncomprehending stare, she threatened, "don't make me give the bowl with you running around naked as a baby – I'd like to, as a matter of fact. Now eat and listen."

Her stories were… weird, to put it lightly. Her introductory tale was one about a rabbit that could spell, another about a turtle learning how to pick coconuts and various other fables of cows dancing to the goat's piano. What she expected Link to think of them he did not know, but dutifully he listened, even though he wondered what the point was.

Maybe she just liked hearing her own voice. There didn't seem to be any better answer.

"Now, let me tell you a story about forbidden love," Farore started, but was cut off by Link's groan.

"Again?" he sighed, rubbing his temples tiredly, "This is the sixth one already, and the past five were all the same."

"Yes well," Farore said mildly affronted, "this one might be of greater relevance to you. It even involves us Goddesses." Link opened his mouth to say that would make it the fourteenth story involving the three Goddesses but was corked by a spoon of mushroom soup. Frowning past the cutlery, he made a mental tally of the various soups shoved his way – sixteen different blends, four of them involving cheese.

"Without further interruptions," Farore continued with a weighted look, nodding when Link didn't respond, "I'll start with Nayru's part, since it is the mildest, to say the least. Well, remember I told you she used to descend from Heaven to play the part of a singer? Well, that's not all she did." Farore cackle evilly, raising her palm to cover her mouth in the faintest attempt of decency. Thunder rolled across the background in tune with her.

Finishing, she smiled at Link's stumped expression and resumed. "When you reduce yourselves to mortal levels, while you're protected some various things – disease, bad luck, death until you wish it – you still face certain things like emotions from hate to love.

"It was around two and a half centuries ago she decided to make a drop by. Not as a Hylian, Labrynnian or such shaped intelligence, but as a fairy. Still a singer, but one who floated across Hyrule, entrancing all gentle beings with her voice and song. Most people didn't realise she was there, since she chose to only flutter around when they were asleep.

"Regardless, the fairies knew what she was doing, and if the Great Deku Tree approved, they approved. Many came to respect her, adore her – pshaw! – and particularly among the male population, love her." Farore giggled, muttering quietly to herself about times past.

"Something you might want to know, but when we descend, we try to keep our presence to a limited time frame. We decided it at seventy years, which is a fairly healthy life length for beings like you, but for a fairy it was time for Nayru to construct her accidental death. That was proving difficult, since one particularly fairy that went all out to impress her was starting to endear him to her. So was she to stay, break a law that has held for millennia or discover this emotion deeply?"

She paused for dramatic effect, one hand raised to the rhetorical question and the other palm up in her lap. Her head was slightly raised so she could follow her eyes along an imaginary path guided by her hand, and when she returned her gaze back to Link was incredibly irritated that he was trying to scratch his name onto the bowl with the spoon rather than listen.

"You're not listening!" she fumed, almost cartoonishly pouting and flapping her hands in annoyance. Link dropped the bowl to raise his hands in a placating manner, and soon had to drop his entire body to dodge the arc of lightning that slashed past him.

"Whoa, peace! I'm listening, I'm listening!" Checking his head for any singed hairs, Link returned back to his previous position, the difference this time being his forced expression of interest. "Haven't I heard this story before?"

Farore shrugged. "I don't know. I doubt it, but if I did I'm going to tell you anyway. Back to where I was, had she been in her Goddess form, the decision wouldn't have suffered any hesitation on her part. Alas, as a fairy, she felt those pangs of love and interest that interfered with purely logical judgement. The clincher came when said fairy protected her from her played out accident, diving to save her from the Wolfos' teeth and getting mortally injured. As a Goddess, death for her was to be rewarded with life, but as a fairy it was the ultimate show of faith and love. So Nayru's decision was to use the magic meant to whiz her back up here to save the fairy, rather than returning and using her powers to save him that way."

"Hey, if the Goddesses are meant to be impartial to emotions, how come you're so…" Link struggled to find a word to describe Farore, ending lamely with, "… energetic?"

Farore raised a finger, nodding. "A good question, one good enough for me to deem with an answer. You see, only death would let you ascend to Heaven, and even then you'll have to become an angel to get high enough to meet us Goddesses in person. So, I take a few compromises, elevating your mind to this level of somewhere and I lower myself. On the way I pick up a few things." She smiled broadly before gesturing with her hands. "But back to the story…"

What the story was she didn't tell, suddenly jumping out of the stool and hastily peering over her shoulder now and then. With some hurried words she shoved the bed Link was lying on, sending him flying away like a roller coaster. Before he returned to consciousness though, he saw Farore laughing nervously and scratching the back of her head when a lady with blue hair appeared.

_-S-_

Being smacked by consciousness was a feeling Link was used to, but it didn't make the ride any easier. It felt like his body was on a really fast ride, and consciousness was the point when the ride suddenly stopped and he flew forward suddenly, the opening of his eyes the moment right before he crashed into the ground.

Groaning softly, Link opened his eyes blearily, choosing to comprehend the sensations over his body over sight first. His shoulder was still painful, but muted and had the itch that meant some gauze or fabric was wrapped tightly around it. His hand felt the same way, which was a good sign since Farore said he destroyed his nerves. An experimental twitch proved he could still move it and feel it. When there is time he should do a bit of prayer at the Temple of Time. He could even see how far the construction went.

Unlike the other times he woke up suddenly, this time there was no one watching over him. The only sign someone entered recently was the failure to completely close the door, so thereby allowing the ambient sounds of outside bombard his ears. Looking around showed his green tunic nicely dried and ironed lying on a chair, his multitude of weapons cleaned, polished and leaning against a cupboard and Navi snoozing away on a flower array used to decorate his windowsill. She was curled up into a ball, suddenly mentioning small snippets of her dream, which appeared to deal with 'raspberries', 'tongue depressors' and 'circus balancing acts'.

Sluggishly Link got out of the bed, mildly surprised at the slippers nicely set at the base. Judging by the marble floor and fancy insignia sewed on the slippers, he was still in the Academy. Slipping them on he shuffled over to don his garments and after a few minutes of fruitless searching for his shoes threw on his cap and slipped out of the room. Navi could enjoy her nap for a bit longer.

The hallway was slightly more crowded than usual, people meandering past one another muttering into stacks of papers or staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. No one actually looked forwards, rather spending their sights at the heavens beyond or the books beneath, relying on the motion of the masses to guide them along with their memories. As such, no one saw Link, and from the glimpses they got of him via peripheral vision they chucked him off as another page boy with a new fashion sense.

A quick check at the calendar posted on the wall (there were seven, each suggesting various ways of measuring the passage of the sun and seasons but Link stuck to the millennia approved version) showed that he stayed asleep for a record-breaking twenty hours, probably the least time yet from battle-given exhaustion.

Fumbling through the pouch attached to his waist, he was surprised that he still had Nabooru's spirit coin. It served multitudes of purposes, one being a tracking device for Nabooru (strangely Darunia never gave him one) but for today it was going to be his decision maker. Flipping it in the air, heads meant left and tails meant right.

Left it is then. Shrugging, Link puttered along the corridor, swerving out of the way to dodge people blank-eyed in thought and people teetering on the edge of toppling over the pile of books clasped in their hands. Hitting another junction, Link again chose another random direction. As Tylos told him, don't read the signs, since they did nothing.

Speaking of Tylos, it wasn't long before he bumped into him. Apologising slightly, Tylos stopped and broke out into a big grin. "Link! Glad to see you up and about! How're you feeling?" Clapping Link's back heartily he started to steer his friend off one direction.

"Pretty well, actually," Link replied, flexing his right hand slowly, "amazingly so."

Tylos nodded wisely, humming in agreement. "Yes, the doctors said that they really should have amputated your hand," Link blanched noticeably at that, "but were surprised when it was repairing itself right in front of them. Some chalked that up to divine intervention."

Link chuckled lightly. "Thank the Goddesses, eh? Brings new meaning to the words." Glancing around as the number of people thinned, he asked, "Where are we going?"

"The thanking party, of course. Those that were viewing wished to give their thanks and congratulations, and Sparrow wants to talk with you as well, plus some lady who calls you 'Rope' of all things. Oh yes, the Princess is there too."

"Zelda? That's good." Link nodded. He could go to work quickly on his Second Seal then. "Wait, who's Sparrow?"

"The lady that threw the knife? It's strange, really. Her child's called Robin, and she's Sparrow. Interesting names, isn't it?" Tylos' mouth twitched in a wide grin and he started to recite every bird he knew. And living in this institute for brains, that was a lot.

Link shrugged, for he needed to thank her too. Maybe he could persuade her to buy the rest of his knives. He stopped suddenly, noticing something Tylos said. "Someone who calls me 'Rope'?"

He nodded, not understanding Link's qualms. "Yeah, she got red hair, quite like a Gerudo really. In fact, her skin has a light tan – maybe she's part Gerudo? If she was, I wonder why she's not hanging out with her Desert friends. Anyway, she's a student here as well, and underwent a sudden zeal in discovering the echelons of magic." Link laughed nervously at that.

Damn, why did he have to make up a fake name, fake group and fake history? To protect himself and send her off to Lake Hylia. Ah yes, he didn't need her group to slow him down in his passage to Zora Domain. Cursing himself, he added to Tylos, "how many people there know my name?"

Tylos shrugged, not getting where he was going. "The Princess and I, I guess. Everyone else calls you 'boy in green', 'phantom slayer', 'sword master', 'fire hand' and dozens of other titles. Some believe that lady and call you Rope."

Link nodded. Maybe there was a chance for damage control. Hopefully Zelda would play along. "Right, well when we're in that lady's presence, I'm Rope, okay? Link is some guy in Lake Hylia, and I work under him."

Tylos nodded uncertainly, but before he could question Link they arrived at the courtyard where everyone was wandering around with a disposable cup of lemonade. A few noticed their entrance, and with an excited whisper everyone was staring at him expectantly. Glancing through the crowd, Link noticed Zelda sitting calmly at the back of the pack, raising her cup in salute.

"Uh, hey. I'm Rope." Link glanced quickly at the lady before giving a meaningful look to Zelda at the back. She raised her eyebrow, but remained silent.

The crowd muttered with their quiet whispers as Sparrow strode forward, extending her hand for a handshake. "Rope, is it? A strange name," she concluded, smiling widely, "but I'm not one to talk. I'm Sparrow, if this soldier here hasn't told you."

The lady who thought his name was Rope walked forward as well, a small quirk on her lips. "Hey, I never gave my name before. The name's Askura, and I'm glad you came along. What brought you here?"

Link didn't have time to answer when Navi whizzed in, bouncing off people's heads in her search for him. Worried that she'll blow his name cover, Link grabbed a decorative rope tied in a fancy knot and raised it for appraisal.

"Rope?" she asked, looking at the knot to him. He gave a sharp glance at Askura's direction, and Navi's face brightened in comprehension. "Oh, Rope. So Rope, how're you doing, ol' buddy ol' pal?"

It was hard trying to be vague in his descriptions about his imaginary cult Carbon Copy, trying to waive off everyone's praise to the great Link in Lake Hylia. Sparrow wanted to buy his swords again, since a check she did earlier demonstrated that his sword was still as sharp as ever even from scraping against the Steel Ghost's metal robes. Askura seemed intent in prodding Link for more information on Link in Lake Hylia, and aware of the crowd watching, Zelda watching and unaware of what Malik said to her, it was definitely very hard.

"Well, Navi here can explain." Ah, now suddenly life was a lot easier. Wading through the crowd that pressed closer to here the fairy's mumbles (which were actually expletives in her language) Link pressed towards the buffet table, grabbing a plate and stocking up on kebab sticks.

"So, what's with the name, Link?" Zelda asked softly, amused. "I don't know whether you're being humble or egotistical. Which face are you trying to portray, a mere servant or the great magician in Lake Hylia?"

Link waved his hand dismissively, swallowing the large chunk of beef before answering. "It's just some random babble I made up when I first met Askura. I needed to move fast, and since she seemed inclined in discovering where I got my magic from, it was best to ship her off to Lake Hylia than let her tag along with me, slowing me down." Rubbing his forehead, Link turned to hunt for more food. "Believe me, I don't find it easy lying."

"Hey Rope!" Someone in the crowd called.

"Yes?" Link responded swiftly, quickly piling up his plate again.

"Where's your custody, the fairy? She seems to have disappeared."

Link waved the kebab stick loosely, dismissing it as unimportant. "She's probably snoozing somewhere. Guiding the great Link's magic takes a toll on her minute frame, so she spends a surprising amount of time sleeping. Don't worry, she'll pop up again. If it's really important search through the flower areas." With a bow the man left, calling to his friends to head for the gardens.

"Ahem, Rope?" Zelda called softly.

"Yes?" Link responded swiftly, finishing off his plate.

"You don't find lying easy, I see," Zelda stated flatly, one gloved hand pointing at the man that left. "That's not bad for someone who finds it difficult."

Link raised both eyebrows and gave a suave smile. "What can I say, I'm the best even when I'm the worst." Laughing at her annoyance, he crumpled up his plate and tossed it into the nearby bin. "But business first, I still need to create the Second Seal, and you said you'll help me 'lock on' to the proper emotions this time. I don't want to make another Feral Blade again." He grimaced deeply at that.

Zelda sighed, withdrawing a small notebook from her back pocket. "Yes, that's probably the reason you came here in the first place." Flipping through the pages, she made small marks with a pencil. "My schedule is actually quite heavily booked," she muttered, frowning at her entries, "but I think I can persuade father to brush off some of these pointless lessons. I mean, how does biology tie in with politics? Why do I have to learn about the Mushroom Kingdom and its subjects?"

Link blinked. "Kingdom? What's that to do with biology?"

Zelda stared at him for a few moments before nodding in realisation. "Oh yes, I forgot you don't have to learn these boring stuff. Lucky bugger," she said lowly, shooting a baleful glance at him before raising her voice to normal, "well, every living thing is placed in a hierarchy determined by their kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. It's all too much to remember, and I really don't see why I need to know it."

Link hummed in agreement. "So when do you have some free time?"

Referring back to her notebook, she pencilled down a mark before replying, "Two days from now, at three o'clock in the afternoon. So you have the rest of the time to goof off, while I have to… study." Sighing disparagingly she snapped the book shut with a loud clack and stalked off with a sour face and grumbling about the unfairness of life.

_-S-_

More time was spent polishing his swords and lying down than goofing off, and those two days flew by with him being cooped up in the university residence. Tylos seemed to find a surprising proficiency with thrown weapons, and picked up the art of javelins very quickly. With renewed vigour he sparred with the other soldiers, fighting up close with the javelin and released it only when they backed off for a breather or he found the opportunity. Given the lightness of his weapon compared to their spears, they usually tired first in close quarters, and he had the big advantage and ranged fighting. Pretty ingenious.

Link was happy that his friend seemed to regain his active spirit, and spent his free time either writing haikus about the beauty of battle or chatting to Link. Link gave a few pointers on how to hold the javelin so that it could be easily changed from a solid parrying stick to a projectile weapon and Tylos recited a few of his haikus.

When the time was up, Link left ICARUS University swaggering to their chants of 'Rope! Rope! Rope!' and all his various blades attached to new harnesses and leather straps kindly donated by the academy. Since it was built on Palace given grounds, it was a quick walk to the palace and a few minutes to get the paperwork done with to meet Zelda.

Her magic area of choice was a new one to Link, and through all his explorations of the Palace he never found this place. That was odd, given that it was in open air, placed on the roofs so you'd expect he see it from one of the turrets surrounding it.

The floor was made out of some unknown rock, and a pattern was gouged out of the floor and filled with some unknown metal. From a distance this silvery metal appeared to be flowing as small beads of light travelled at a sedate pace through it, yet upon closer inspection those light beads stayed still and the metal upon contact felt perfectly solid.

"Freaky stuff," Link muttered, prodding the metal a few more times.

"That is a fey invention," Navi said proudly, dancing around the circular pattern, following its intricate curves and twirls in a generic spell casting circle. "We call it _allodeas_, meaning 'glowing silver'. Which is false," Navi corrected, "for while it's a compound of many things, it only has minute traces of silver." Flying higher, she grinned in appreciation for the magic circle. "This pattern is also a fairy creation, discovered around seven hundred and forty years ago. It has many uses, the most significant being the focussing of emotions, so it's great if you don't want personal feelings to interfere with your work." She laughed and settled onto the sword resting in the centre. "I guess this is a new way to use it."

Zelda was leafing through a large mouldy tome, and peering over her shoulder showed it was written in Ancient Hylian. Despite being able to read it, Link found the amount of text crammed into a single page so detracting he chose to just observe the _allodeas_ instead.

"What emotions do you want again?" Zelda asked, running her finger across a large block of script.

Link shrugged. "I don't know. The last time I did it, from the Kokiri Forest I was trying to hunt for vitality and innocence, since that's what you'd expect off the Kokiri. From Castletown, I guess faith and resilience is a good option. A sword embodying those would make a great seal, since you'd need to believe and persevere in case of evil."

Zelda nodded slowly, poring over a fat slab of text written in the smallest handwriting possible. Squinting slightly she muttered the words to help her reading, and when finished carefully closed the book.

Brushing her hands of dust against her dress, Zelda turned around and addressed seriously, "The spell is going to involve a preparation section, imbuing section and settling section. While we can prepare and then leave it, once the imbuing starts we must continue it, and only know the results when it fully settles."

"What happens if you don't do the settling part?" Link asked, raising his hand.

Zelda closed her eyes, biting her bottom lip gently. "Without settling, whatever we've imbued the sword will pretty much blow up." Looking around, she added, "Given the amount of space we have here, we'll probably only suffer minor physical damages, but it's the magic that's going to be the most damaging. If we did it right, all it means is that we'll have to retry the process again, if we do it wrong, well." Zelda didn't need to finish her sentence. Link knew what Malik's emotion masks could do.

"Yeah, yeah," Navi drawled, "with my help nothing's going to go wrong. Can we start now?"

Zelda gave Link another glance, and he nodded. He set about dragging his weapons and items out of the spell circle and once making sure not a thing was left behind stepped out himself. This task was left to Navi and Zelda, since they had more delicacy dealing with magic.

The preparation section started with a soft incantation by Zelda, who stood two metres away from the sword. The _allodeas_ beneath her started to ripple like a liquid, and quickly picked up a faint pink colour as it started moving. Navi stood opposite Zelda, and adding her own incantation the metal turned a mild purple.

It was a strange sight to be seen. Both purple and pink liquids were moving it opposite directions, and where Link expected a disjointed wobble where they met they rather flowed over one another, the purple one rising and falling with changing densities. Within a few minutes the spell circle was written in a flashing alteration of light pink and purple.

The colours suddenly solidified into a more resonant blue when Navi and Zelda started saying the same incantation. Where they were two separate voices saying separate things, and some unheard signal they suddenly matched up, tuning into a single voice with a sole purpose. A miniature pink spell circle grew as a light show at Zelda's feet, and the same happened with Navi, but purple. These soon disintegrated in small shards of light, falling down and dissolving into the flowing metals.

Zelda opened her eyes and stopped speaking, letting Navi do the chanting for a while. Looking at Link, she nodded to indicate that the preparation was now finished and it was time to start the imbuing. Feeling a strange warmth in his stomach, Link nodded. Smiling lightly she returned back to her invocations, falling in line with Navi.

Small motes of white light appeared to fly out of Castletown, floating slowly and rotating around the spell circle. With a cloud of light forming above, it slowly trickled down, falling into the _allodeas_ and flowing towards the sword.

"It's going to work," Link uttered softly to himself, admiring the constellation of light motes, "thank Farore it's going to work."

That line of thought was broken when Zelda suddenly screamed and jolted out of the spell circle. Navi's eyes opened in surprise, but not able to let the spell end abruptly could only point at the scimitar resting near Link.

With a sinking feeling Link looked towards it, but he didn't need to see to know who it was. A raspy voice chuckled, drawn like the screech of steel, and with its own malevolent mirth asked, "Remember me?"

In the blade, the Steel Ghost had Zelda held by the neck and his spike was resting just above her heart.

_-S-_

A/N: Whew, that was a toughie. I liked it though. I must say, the battle against the Steel Ghost must be my best battle scene yet. And so quickly you'll be seeing another one! Isn't that fun.

In case some of you were wondering, in the fight Link's sword slash weakened the robe's material, the first knife again a bit more and by the time the second knife was thrown it was weak enough for penetration. The chances of three hits landing on the same spot? Very slim, so it was Sparrow's luck to strike an area Link already did, and Tylos' skill to follow up accurately.

I know I was going to say something else, but I can't remember. Oh yeah, to all you hotshot fanfiction authors out there, update! I managed to… after some time, true… but, yeah… hrm…

Oh yes, the real message. Should I raise the ratings? I mean, things are going to get a bit gruesome for a while to come, and its present rating might not suffice. I'd rather raise the rating and protect the wee kids from my works than get my stuff deleted, since I don't have a back-up copy of the earlier chapters with me. Tell me if you think so.

Otherwise, there's nothing else I can think of that is of importance. Why do bubbles rise in groups? If three wires attached to two batteries (take your standard 1.5V) get you +1.5V at the top, 0V at the middle and -1.5V at the bottom, what voltages will you get with 3 batteries? If nothing can move faster than the speed of light, how did the universe expand so quickly? Eh, I have so many questions, but are ill-placed here.

So I bid a fair adieu, and comments and criticisms are appreciated. Maybe I'll get some hits over 300 for this new chapter?


	32. Despair

A/N: Huhu, just read 'All Quiet on the Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque (a man, despite being called Maria). A damned good book, I must say. Makes you appreciate the finer arts of hating war.

Chapter 30:

Who do you fight for? An impasse. Blade locked against blade. Speed was countered with speed. And eyes met with eyes.

Shut up, he called out, shut up! With a grunt he shoved free of his opponent, hoping to gain the necessary space to complete a lethal swing. It also gave enough time for the grinning enemy to block. He was tiring, but he was not.

Why do you fight? Why must you fight? The enemy twirled his weapon slowly in the air, glistening tip drawing a lazy circle. A taunt: attack me, fool, I dare you.

Shut up with your games, he screamed back, hands shaking from fury, just shut up! It didn't take much effort to convert his close combat blade into a projectile weapon, but as it was casually slapped aside it resulted in him being one weapon short on the exchange.

The blade managing to plunge in was a hope at best, and he learnt through experience that you don't make hopes, you make diversions. The smile, oh that angering smile, slipped slightly as he was forced to pedal back and dodge the vicious slashes.

This is no game, child. This is a test. Now, prove yourself. The grin was back up, and even if the enemy was slightly injured from that surprise assault, it was no worse than his. He shifted into a defensive stance, beckoning for him to charge.

I take no tests, he growled back. Malik listened to the summons, and sprinted forward. The other Malik kept on grinning.

­_-S-_

This, Link concluded, was not good. 'Not good' was an understatement at best: his closest weapon was a few steps away, but the time needed to reach one was more than the Steel Ghost needed to slit Zelda's throat. Navi couldn't help much – she was already strained trying to maintain the rampant magic flaying around and entering the sword.

The Steel Ghost strangely enough seemed happy to just stand there, amused at Link's dilemma. Zelda had tried to squirm her way free, of course, but a small gesture and the stake sunk in deeper, pressure cutting the fabric until the tip was resting directly on skin. That was enough to still even the hardiest of wills.

There was only one course of action available to Link, and it was placed on the bet that the Steel Ghost would do as he hoped it would. The fastest attack he could pull out was the Web of Strings, and it had to pack enough punch to get the Steel Ghost to at least move. After it released Zelda, Link would think further.

And here lied perhaps the greatest strength of the Steel Ghost's invisibility. It managed to turn one weakness – a reflection – into an advantage. For how was Link meant to accurately strike the Steel Ghost? Eyes looking one direction and hands pointing another, it would be impossible to accurately strike. Too far to the right, and its hand would be pushed deeper in – deep enough only to cut through skin, but who knew whether that spike was poisoned. No, Link wasn't going to risk Zelda's life on a gamble that would still end up with a load of trouble.

"You sick maniac, why won't you leave me alone?" Link called out, hoping to buy some time. Who knew when the Steel Ghost would finish the move needed to drive foul steel through living flesh. A plan, that's what he needed, a plan!

"You," it slurred, "came to me." Voice like someone eating rust, it cackled, eyes slitting in pleasure at the panic flashing across Zelda's face as its hand wriggled. She managed not to scream though, and it seemed to take that as its next goal.

A plan, a plan! Link looked around desperately, hunting for anything that would give him an advantage. The sword in the centre of the _allodeas_ rune circle was vibrating as the magic leaped free from the liquid binding it to pummel the blade. An interesting distraction, but the Steel Ghost wasn't distracted. The castle roof would drop steeply five metres behind the Steel Ghost, and while that may prove a way to finally kill the damned thing, it didn't solve the issue of Zelda as hostage. Plus, the Steel Ghost managed to get up without the stairs, and that would require climbing the blinking walls.

Speaking of which, how did it manage to sneak into the Academy's courtyard, anyway? That was not a question to answer now though. A plan: scimitar in front, Steel Ghost further. Web of strings. First idea was hopeless, so he had to adapt it. But how?

"Well, why do you have to bring other people in it?" He yelled, gesturing at Zelda's frightened form. A stupid question, as he knew the answer. But he needed more time.

"I harvest," it drawled, sliding its spike downwards to aim at her stomach. The death wouldn't be as quick, but still as sure. Zelda winced, a small hiccup of a sound escaping her lips. Link didn't need to directly see it to know it was smiling.

Aim, aim, damnit, aim! Link's eyes darted around but always returning towards the blade, making sure the Steel Ghost hadn't decided to impale her yet. The Steel Ghost smirked, wheeling his wrist quickly and pressing it harder against her skin, causing Zelda to squeak. Link involuntarily took a step back and almost tripped over his belt strewn behind him.

Stumbling back to his feet, he cursed at the Steel Ghost's scrawled laugh, toned deep with mockery at Link's mistake. It seared through his eyes, asking so contemptuously: are you he who defies me, some kid who trips over his scattered toys? Link took another step back to disentangle the belt from his feet, and then an idea struck him.

His step back also gave a better angle for Link to see the stake against Zelda's stomach, and with sickening dread the Steel Ghost drew back its arm for a vicious swing in. It had grown impatient, and it harvests.

_-S-_

With a light spray of blood Malik stumbled back, left hand clasping tightly to his right forearm to stem the blood flow. He could feel his fingers grow weak from the loss of blood, but against his opponent any sign of weakness would be capitulated. It would be what he himself would have done.

Blue eyes glared at blue eyes, yet one mop of blue hair was stained red. He had asked himself what tricks he would have fallen for, but the time he figured it out the opponent found the answer.

Numb fingers: not good. Gritting his teeth, Malik slowly twisted his tormented lips into a disjointed smile. Well, if that ugly imitation of him was going to imitate him, he might as well copy it in turn.

It's smile faltered, and Malik was relieved in being able to push his own into a grimace. Now a bit uncertain, his copy snapped its knife into its hand and charged, knees bent low for a sudden lunge up.

With a final curse to the High Mages, he lunged in return.

_-S-_

As the arm arced for the deadly strike, Link could feel his senses sharpening; blood rejuvenating cells and the world dramatically slow down. He noticed that his mana was pushing against _something_, a metaphoric reflection of himself repelling some unseen force, halting its constant march throughout…

By some miracle, Link was stilling time.

He was not one to question how it worked. He just saw the opportunity and seized it.

Stamping on the buckle of his belt, it was with great impatience he watched it flip over, pouches dislodging from under the unnatural application of force. He was only interested in one item however, and hooking its slowly spinning form with his foot kicked the Lens of Truth into his right hand.

It seemed almost then that time resumed its normal march, and mana flaring through his arm Link could see the spike half a foot away from Zelda's abdomen. Rerouting the channels of mana he forced a small trickle into an intricate pattern in his left hand, activating the Web of Strings to send two wires out, one at the Steel Ghost's elbow and the other to the fallen scimitar.

Vision through the Lens of Truth flickered slightly from the reduction of mana supplied, but it stabilised in time to let Link see he achieved what he wanted. Wire wrapping tightly around the Steel Ghost's arm he reeled it back in, holding the spike just a centimetre away from Zelda.

The Steel Ghost snarled, yanking its arm in the opposite direction in hopes of unbalancing Link. With the wires refolding back into Link's compressed space though, it ended up sending Link flying towards it: what he wanted. Scimitar's handle slapping into his palm he raised the blade for a cross slash, a fatal strike to the shoulder, and with the arm with the spike outstretched the only defence would come if…

The Steel Ghost clearly didn't like to be forced, but with no other alternative it had to drop Zelda so as to effectively bring up its sleeves in defence. Steel screeched against steel, the weight behind Link's flying body forcing the Steel Ghost back a step, but whilst the ending blow was blocked, it did what Link wanted it to do, and Zelda was quick to take this chance to scramble away.

As the Steel Ghost wrestled Link off, a few problems with holding the Lens of Truth became quite apparent. Needing to be help up close to the eye, it pretty much left half of Link's waist undefended, something the Steel Ghost was all too happy to press in. It also limited Link's weapon to his left hand, meaning that he couldn't pick up another one as before or do quick swaps.

Flicking the blade out to deflect the incoming stake, his sight was obscured by the flashing metal, and only too late saw a husked fist flash towards the Lens of Truth. Damage to it meant loss of sight, and reacting instantly he pulled the glass away from the incoming fist. He was rewarded by a hard punch against his jaw.

Stumbling back gave the Steel Ghost time to lunge in with vicious stabs, Link's still reeling mind only able to deflect the most life-threatening of them. With a crude swing Link launched the scimitar in a haphazard arc, holding back the assault but getting a rough gash on his arm as a result.

Biting his lip in pain, Link lowered the Lens of Truth so as to supply some raw mana to help speed up the healing of his arm. Relying on his blade to show the Steel Ghost's reflection, the best he could do was to skip away from each thrust at his body. A misstep resulted in the spike's reflection rushing towards his throat. In a final defence, he raised the scimitar in hopes of a deflection, arching his back so as the point to sail over. Before his hand blocked the way though he knew it wouldn't work and although this wouldn't strike his throat anymore he'll lose his left hand instead…

The expected blow didn't land. Opening his winced eyes, he looked around before foolishly remembering that the Steel Ghost was invisible. Once again redirecting the flows of mana inside his body back towards the Lens of Truth, he searched quickly for the Steel Ghost.

Not surprisingly it didn't decide to leave in the middle of battle. Taking the opportunity where Zelda's attention was spent trying to reign in the flailing magic, it crept up behind her, savouring the moment. "Oh, sweet blood," Link could hear it croon, cackling as Zelda's control slipped, the _allodeas_ spontaneously dropping into a more erratic pattern, "you cannot run from me. I will drink, and you will die."

One arm rose, and its weapon surged forwards.

_-S-_

Frost. Malik wasn't going to question where the frost was coming from, but strangely it was warm frost. Malik was being burnt by the frost, so he expanded on that fact and led him wherever there was frost.

In the body's attempts to stall away the biting cold, blood was withdrawn from the skin and kept underneath the insulating layer of flesh and bone. At least Malik wasn't bleeding as badly before. The warm frost seemed to always creep up on his peripheral vision, and at one point his arm was covered in a thin layer of ice when he wasn't paying attention. In fact, the less attention he paid, the more frost would appear, and the warmer the room would be…

The other Malik was finding the growing cold painful though, writhing and crying out as his body touched the glistening dew, hand clenching and rubbing in vain hopes of returning heat. His grin still remained, albeit a pained one. His eyes picked up a more panicked fervour. Malik remained aloof – the less he cared, the more he'll achieve.

In a desperate burst Malik charged forth, smile reaching serenity as knives flashed from their hiding spots. The other Malik stared at him blankly, right hand twitching at the approach. Suddenly his eyes focussed on the incoming imposter, and his hand snapped into a pouch, a mask instantaneously flipping onto his face.

It was a gaze of lunacy that faced the visage of tranquillity. Through the thin fabric of his mask, Malik cast out the emotions of confusion, of madness. Strike me, strike me, ha-ha, strike you! I'm in front, fool, behind! I wave to the left, you bow to the right, let's shake hands, the mountain walls are ever patient!

With a sharp crack Malik was flung aside, mask floating off his face. Through the excruciating pain racking through his body he noticed the other Malik was on his back too, the frost was melting and it was cold…

­_-S-_

The scimitar wasn't built for flying, but its spinning form flew true, striking with a clanging resonance against the Steel Ghost's cloak. It proved no more than a distraction, but Link was good at making and using distractions: when the Steel Ghost stabbed forward, it was to find that Zelda had been pulled aside, wires wrapped around her elbows, knees and waist removing her from the scene of danger.

Navi cried in pain as Zelda's broken concentration caused the magic to flare dangerously, and her body was flung back as the sudden polarising of the magic propelled her away with mild burns. Flickering now like a supernatural bonfire the magic danced in a conflagration of violet and blue, runes slowly deforming as the flaring _allodeas_ eroded a new pathway, a new magic circle. She immediately changed her own aura, bravely stepping back into the fires to regain control over the magic. White flares were shooting erratically out of everything, decomposing into motes and getting absorbed into the magic.

Quickly unwinding the wires Link shot one across to pick up his personal sword, its high hum dragging the Steel Ghost's attention at its armed foe. The moment Link's fingers wrapped around the grip he charged, angling so as to back the Steel Ghost against the fall behind and the fires to the side.

Sneering noticeably it ran right through the fires, batting aside the wobbling sword in the middle of the rune circle. Where it walked through the fires picked up a darker hue, flaring sick green and ill purple. The sword seemed to shudder at its touch, screeching above the cacophony of blue fires as it trembled free.

Link could see what was happening, the magic growing more unwieldy and rampant as the blade shivered loose. Fighting against his own screaming instincts and falling heart he pumped his weight off his left leg, shooting into the magical fires through the Steel Ghost's trail. The white flares were sparking at an increased tempo, mana bleeding off everything from every direction and being lapped up by the greedy fires. He needed to get the sword back in, get it to contain the magic soaking free.

The first step into the fires explained why his instincts were shrieking so. It felt like a thousand wires cross-hatched against his entire body, a malicious puppeteer more interested in seeing the puppets ripped to shreds than playing. His temples thumped as blood tried to squeeze into his brain, and his subconscious forced all available mana to self preservation. As the Steel Ghost flickered out of sight, It was only momentum that kept Link running forwards, and sheer will that forced his arm to raise and push down the sword.

**_Shrack_**_…_

_"We're all gonna die. No one's stopped that murderer yet, no one ever will. We're all going to die."_

_"Failure, failure, failure!__ I'm a failure. I can never get this right. I will never get this right."_

_"I have to get out of this life! I hate it! If death is the only way, then death is what I'll take!"_

_"Keep the children safe. Hah, nowadays nowhere is safe. They'll grow up in a world of crime and sin, and we can't do anything about it. We _are_ it."_

_"I give up…"_

_"I'm going to lose. Lives are counting on this, damnit, and I'm going to lose…"_

**_Click._**

Link blinked as the sound of the sword fitting solidly into its pedestal. The hilt felt strangely warm, but at least the wild flares from the _allodeas_ seemed to calm down a bit. Now that the pain was a bit more tolerable, Link allowed himself to slump to his knees for a job well done. Stupid sword…

The fires returned to their previous potency with a scream from Navi. Crying and getting to his feet, Link looked to where Navi was dancing around, occasionally staying still long enough to tap the magic circle before whisking away.

It was with sick feeling Link looked at the sword next to him, and true enough the reflection showed the Steel Ghost stabbing at the air Navi once was, and taking great pleasure with each shriek of surprise she uttered.

The rune circle was dangerous enough with just one person controlling it, but unattended it was growing out of hand. Navi's brief touches of control weren't enough to reign in it, and faced with the distinct fear that it would burn with Link still inside she paused longer, quickly trying to tie the mana knots that would at least choke the mystical fires and give Link some time to get out before she had to take control again.

Link could feel the pain ebbing, but he could also see the Steel Ghost laugh and raise his spike for a strike that would run right through her cranium and into her body. With an angry gasp Link tried to summon up the energy to force through the Web of Strings one more time.

It was with his great horror to see the wire melt through the fires, the magic pattern holding up his attack crumbling under the external radiation.

"Navi!" Strangely enough someone said that before him.

Picking himself up he dimly recollected Zelda was nearby, and he turned his head just in time to see her release a bolt of lightning from her fingertips. Careening in an arc around the spell-fires, it struck just above Navi and reformed into a hexagonal blanket around the fairy. The spike crashed heavily, but slid across.

Quick to use the escape Navi fluttered away, now staying well above the Steel Ghost's reach. Shrugging unconcernedly, it pivoted calmly, turning its attention to Zelda. Flipping the spike around, it rushed in to strike her recovering form.

A small clap to its side alerted it to Link's presence, his break charge managing to dislodge one of the floor tiles. Snarling grimly it swung around, readying its stake for an attempt at Link. Holding the Lens of Truth up to see the Steel Ghost, it would have been impossible for him to move his arm and draw a weapon. Certain in its victory, it met Link's sprint with one of its own.

What it did not expect was that Link wasn't carrying a weapon, and hadn't intended to use one. With a mana-charged kick he pounded hard on the ground, vaulting his body like a low flying comet to tackle the Steel Ghost straight in the gut. The stake only managed to scrape half a centimetre into Link's shoulder before his elbow smashed heavily into the Steel Ghost's abdomen, momentum carrying Link's next assault into a shoulder tackle. With the Lens lowered the Steel Ghost faded out of sight again, but Link could here the muffled grunt and clatter of the Steel Ghost landing on his strewn weapons to know his attack struck true.

"Boy," it slurred irately, kicking a knife at his chest, "you anger me."

Hopping aside, Link returned the attack with his own smirk. "That's the plan."

It took a while, but he finally figured out a way to beat the bad guy.

_-S-_

"You're an idiot."

"Shut up, I got a headache. I don't have time for you."

"Imagine, using magic so callously! What would our parents say?"

"'Callously'? You've been reading too much. And our parents wouldn't say anything, so be quiet."

"I mean, it's fine if you were alone, but you weren't, and everyone nearby didn't appreciate that display."

"Oh, for crying out loud, what the heck did you think I would do? I did what I was meant to do. Now before I break your twiggy arms, be silent."

"Twiggy? You're calling me twiggy? From a hippo from you, no wonder your perspective of the world is distorted. Besides, you should stop showing off with your magic – so what if a lot of people can't duplicate what you did."

This was getting annoying. "For the love of all that is holy, Sierra, shut up!" Reza flapped her arm out, managing to clip her sister's knee. Hearing nothing for a few seconds, she determined that finally some sense entered her errant sibling and tried to get more rest.

"You really got to thank Link, you know. I doubt you'd get this far without his help," Sierra continued, but in a quieter tone. Reza moaned irritably, raising her hand to rub the bridge of her nose.

"That Kiss of Marriage still applies, if you only give it," she commented, sitting cross-legged next to Reza's floor mattress.

Reza's response was to roll on her side and wave weakly for Sierra to go away. Who said the ghosting trick would hurt so much?

Sierra interpreted the silence differently. "By Din, you did?" She clapped her hands happily against her cheeks, leaning forward to get a better view of her sister's expression. "Wow, you slick mover, what was it like?"

"Be quiet, brat. I really don't want to deal with this right now." She winced her eyes, fists clenching tightly to rein in her migraine. And her temper. Yelling right now would just upset it even more.

"Ha, ha, you don't deny it! Come on, Sister, details!" she cackled as sinister as an eleven year old could get, shaking Reza's shoulders for a better response.

"Like kissing wood, you tree-hugger. Now will you leave me alone?" A Gerudo does not need painkillers. The fires that forge must remain fires, not smoke. Although with Sierra's provocation and her growing headache, Reza was sorely tempted to ask for some.

"Ha, I don't believe you. You probably want to keep the mushy details to yourself." She nodded all-knowingly, agreeing to her conclusion. "Yes, they're too much they'll stain a mind as innocent as mine." Reza twitched, coughing heavily. "Did he kiss back? Did you hug? Fondle? Press in close and long? Something more?" Reza twitched again, coughs dropping down to hacks. Sierra smiled sagely. "Ah, I see. I guess I have to tell all the others that the Cleaving Man is taken up. Ooh, won't they be disappointed." Mastering the cat's saunter, she waltzed out of the room, inventing what to say as she departed.

Reza only had one comment before returning to teeth gritting and migraine fighting. "Cheesy romance authors deserve to be burnt at the stake."

_-S-_

Pain is a funny thing. Scratch that, when it hurts you don't laugh. Pain is a strange thing. Right after injury and adrenaline later, you can ignore that it's there. But after a while, when you gather your breath and plan your next strategy, it reminds you something is wrong. Painfully so.

The Steel Ghost's strike did not manage to break bone as it hoped, but the small insertion coupled with Link's abuse of his arm rendered his right arm completely useless. Slamming straight into steel must have broken something, but in the meantime he could only feel the screaming ripped shoulder muscles.

Nonetheless, this plan would hopefully not need his hands. Hopping four steps back, Link tied the magic weave of Farore's Wind. Green magic sinking invisibly to the ground, he quickly directed his mana back to the Lens of Truth once the job was done. This worked against Shikaku, so it might work again here.

The Steel Ghost, despite being angered by Link's continuous interference, frankly didn't give a damn what he was doing. With a good three metres between Link and the Steel Ghost, it chose to return its attention to Zelda.

She summoned back the white lightning bolt, but in her haste sacrificed accuracy for speed. With its relatively straight charge her attack flew harmlessly past its shoulder, leaving her wide open for the evisceration it intended. It didn't intend to receive an axe-kick to the face, and plans disrupted had to duck to avoid that.

The Steel Ghost growled at Link's smirking form, him holding his right hand close to his chest and bouncing from one foot to the other. With its unnatural speed it jolted forward, spike blazing in a rending combination to target Link's debilitated arm. Link skipped back to avoid those, and managed to place one light kick at its outstretched hand.

Unfortunately he skipped on step too far, and immediately the Steel Ghost reversed direction and headed straight for Zelda again. She cried in fright and tried to run backwards, but that proved too slow for its angered form.

"Die, girl," it guttered, spike lowered for the ever simplistic and quickest abdomen wound. These pests will die, and they will stay dead! Its plans will not be halted!

Its plans did not take into account that her lightning bolt would turn around and strike it from behind. Conducting across its metallic veil, the Steel Ghost released a raw screech as its body locked up from the voltage. It was quickly toppled when Link ploughed his shin against its chest, pushing it back.

"Shouldn't you take care of the sword?" Link asked, frowning internally at his draining mana reserves. The Steel Ghost seemed unharmed for the most part by the lightning and the kick, just stunned.

Zelda shook her head sadly, keeping her eyes locked on the discarded sword that reflected the Steel Ghost's image. "It is lost," she pronounced softly, "there is little to salvage from it."

Any further talk was interrupted when the Steel Ghost stirred into life, angling so that if Link dodged it would get a clean strike at Zelda behind. Forcing Link to fight unarmed, he did bravely imitating rabbit punches with his feet, although his limbs were scored with light grazes in return. With a sudden burst of spin kicks rapidly assembled Link managed to push his opponent back, a clean strike at the sternum forcing out what air it breathed.

Steel robes not only kept it unseen, but distributed the pressure evenly. In less than a second the Steel Ghost was striking back hard, spike hooking out to catch any limb Link conveniently leaves behind. The battle danced back again, returning them to their starting points but with Link worse for wear. Needing to raise the Lens of Truth to protect it resulted in a scrape under his elbow. Link was now wondering whether the spike was poisoned.

Gritting his teeth was a hard feat, especially when his annoying smirk was part of his plan. Analysing the fight quickly Link determined that he needed to get up close. Reduce its advantage and turn the spike into a clumsy weapon when the fight is too near. Darting to one side Link attempted a powerful leg sweep that would give him enough time to move in for knee jabs.

It so therefore proved irritating when the Steel Ghost chose his motion to move aside and head back for Zelda, and with a curse Link changed his kick into a stamp, pushing his weight off the leg. Twisting his body he smashed his heel into the Steel Ghost's back, and while it staggered drop to the ground to resume his leg sweep.

It soon came in mind how hard it would be to move an opponent who wears a tonne's worth of armour. Shouting from the pain in his ankle Link had to flip upwards to dodge a stab that shattered the tile beneath, clubbing the Steel Ghost's hood with two light kicks.

"You," it snarled, its weapon's hiss of a voice grinding furiously, "are proving irritating." Rubbing its jaw slowly it raised its gaze so Link could see straight at its glowing red eyes. "So die."

Angering it seemed to prove for the best as it ran in for Link's intended close up attacks, hands sweeping in rapid arcs to clock him with the heavy sleeves. Still, Link's knee jabs were pushing it away again.

It soon came in mind how strong a person who swings a tonne's worth of armour like a flag would be. A double kick by Link pushed him far enough so as to find a perch to bounce back in, but also meant enough clearance space for a complete punch to land through. The strike smashed painfully into Link's gut, sending him flying a few feet. The Lens of Truth flew free from his grasp, and before the image faded out he saw the Steel Ghost stamp on it, cracking the glass.

It was just then his mana had to give out, and the Web of Strings he wanted to use to snatch back the Lens fell limply from his sleeve. Cursing his luck, his eyes scanned across the landscape, hunting for a reflective surface.

In the end it didn't matter. The Steel Ghost connected eye contact, pushing its fiery gaze into Link's mind. "In the end," it laughed darkly, one hand gesturing to the sword and rune circle behind Link, "I win."

Link's eyes burnt as he used his peripheral vision to scan the surroundings. The position was perfect. Now or never.

"No," he replied slowly, "I do." Delving into his life's reserves, Link awakened Farore's portal and teleporting the distance, yelled out his final attack:

"Dragon kick!"

Off the reflection from the moat below, the Steel Ghost was still laughing as it fell from the rooftop, but the expense tolled on Link knocked him out before he could clearly see the landing.

"I win…"

_-S-_

When the High Mages came to see Malik, he was in the act of picking his nose. They also had the misfortune to see him sneeze while one finger was wedged up a nostril.

"And there goes one perfectly good blanket," the one with his hood down sighed, "I knew he was unsanitary."

"Hey!" Malik cried indignantly, quickly wiping his nose. The same High Mage cringed as he wiped his hands on the blanket.

"Nonetheless, it is to matters of importance we come," the older and more serious one intoned, "you have managed to fight the test, and pass. This indicates you are worthy of this honour."

"Honour?" Malik asked dubiously, "I get my butt handed to me and you call that an honour? For all I know that magical clone of me is capering in the prairies green while I'm healing in this musty room."

"It is an honour," the third affirmed, stressing the word, "to join the ranks of the High Mages. Few prove enough talent to get this far."

Malik grumbled irritably, wishing to huddle back into his blanket if not for the green stains on it. "I don't want this rank of yours. Get Link, or some other guy. I just want to sleep. Can I get a new blanket?"

The fourth High Mage rolled his eyes. "Oh believe me, you were the last child we had in mind," ignoring Malik's second indignant cry he continued, "but your friend is not of true Sheikan descent, and coupled with other reasons cannot and refuses to take this position."

The fifth one drummed his fingers together. "Besides," he mentioned, "the previous High Mage seemed to have selected you for the honour. Few wield the might of frost without his contract, and lesser still without his supervision."

Malik's eyes seemed to glaze over some point in the explanation, and the final High Mage took it upon himself to explain. "You were chosen, end of story," he delivered exasperated.

Malik blinked slowly. "So, why can't my pops fill the job?"

The first High Mage rubbed his forehead. "Does he call the song of ice?"

"Uh, no… do I?"

"Yes, you do, now shut up before you make yourself and therefore us look worse."

Malik grumbled as they filed out of the room. Before the last one left, he yelled out, "Can I have a new blanket?"

His reply was the first High Mage complaining that he was unsanitary and the third muttering they were not a charity.

_-S-_

"Have you ever wondered what would happen if you keep doing that?"

Link moved with a start. Oh, Farore, his head… "Wha?"

As if he had been resting on a hammock the entire world swung, playing on some cosmic gyroscope to swivel his view to the Goddess. That view wasn't kept for long as he spun yet again, turning in a dizzy array of rotations.

"As smart as ever," she uttered, moving him so she had a clear view of his foot, "and surprisingly as healthy as ever. You got of lucky this time."

"If I keep doing what?" Link tried to establish, growing mildly irritated at how the landscape blurred between distant light and approaching darkness and Farore.

"Tapping into your life force, of course," she explained as it was the most obvious thing. "It's there for a reason, but not for you to use as such."

"What to do?" Link tried to shrug, but given that he believed he was upside down wasn't sure whether that gesture got carried across. "I had to defeat the Steel Ghost somehow." While he appreciated Farore looking out for him, did she have to do it by spinning him like a top?

"You could seriously chop your life short that way," she continued, finally finishing her examination and summoning a plush sofa to lie on, "and live only to about forty or fifty. Or you'll become more likely to be struck with heart disease and all those death-causing ailments." Surveying him one more time, she warned, "Right now you're fine – no permanent damage. Another time and you won't be so lucky."

Link hummed in agreement. "Eh, it's not that bad. I've always figured that I'll stuck on a sword first anyway. Live by the sword and all its philosophy. So," turning the subject to more important matters, "anything I need to know?"

Farore tapped her chin thoughtfully for a moment. "Yes," she said at length, "remember what I told you about Nayru and her being a fairy? Well, don't nod, you're not meant to remember. She's not happy I told you about it."

"Uh… what?"

Farore smiled brightly, willing another plush sofa for Link. "That's the idea. Now that I don't have to delve into your mind and cut that memory out, Din never said anything about me telling stories of her." Stretching languidly, she released a contented purr as her spine popped in several places.

Link blinked uncertainly. "So, now great matters of utmost importance? No dark premonitions to worry about? Invading shadows? Great skills or treasures I should seek out?"

"Nope," Farore replied all too cheerfully, "just a story about Din's jaunt in the Desert."

He sighed imploringly, shaking his head in disbelief. "You called me up just for this? I thought you had to watch over the lands and important business like that."

She leaned down to give him a piercing stare before returning into the cushy embrace of the silk. "I called you up to help repair the damage you keep inflicting on yourself. Honestly, punching steel? I know you're not the brightest, but that's just being dim-witted. You don't know how thankful you should be you personally have a Goddess or two on your side."

Link started examining his hands with greater care. "You mean that all this time my super accelerated healing had nothing to do with genetics?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "It has everything to do with genetics, but someone had to put the gene there. Now, where was I? Ah yes, Din and the Gerudos. Well, it was around two hundred years ago she chose to be reborn as a Gerudo infant…"

You thought you knew your deities? Well, Link knows them better.

_-S-_

The Palace infirmary held some of the best medical practitioners there was in all of Hyrule. Surgeons, consulters, herbalists, chiropractors, medicinal masseurs all alike gathered at the calling of the King to deliver their assistance. In return, they didn't have to pay tax.

Zelda was being taken care of by said doctors, all taking every single possible measurement to see if any bone was shifted a millimetre of alignment, any organ mildly bruised that additional blood flowed for greater recovery. Reflexologists hunted for the crystal deposits in her feet to search for any hidden bane. Traditional doctors checked her pulse, tongue colour, eye response and throat inflammation for long delay poisons.

All in all it was great that she was being so well taken care of. It was not so great that it meant being poked awake every five minutes.

As some other practitioner tested her arm muscles for unnatural tenseness, Zelda was taking the time to admire the stars outside. That, and Link's snoozing form beneath. Really: she gets a minor scratch, he gets a major wound, yet he gets the minor attention as she gets the rest. Hello, he dropped unconscious in battle, she didn't.

Navi was out ordering the magicians and castle guards on safe handling of the sword. One unfortunate soldier, thinking it was a sword like any other just casually held it and promptly committed ritual suicide. It was now bandaged in rune inscribed wool, and being held aloft via wires and surrounded by chanting priests.

Zelda had to admit, Link really must have had a will of stone to walk through the magic fires and touch the sword whilst in its utmost potency and still remain sane. Heck, he even managed to defeat the Steel Ghost without using the scouring fires or his blade-work. That was truly a most amazing adaptation of mana, compelling its versatility into an attack.

More adaptable than Zelda's taught forms of manipulating Light magic. The strict teachings left little to be experimented in terms of attack and defence. Her homing electric spark was as measly as magic gets, and if the Steel Ghost wore anything else than metal – a thin cotton shirt would do – it wouldn't have felt a thing.

Then again, the light magic lessons were kept strict for a reason. The polar opposites of Light and Shadow are not for tampering – only the fey are given that privilege. Do anything wrong, and where in other arts of magic you could at least see something, with light… nothing. Maybe a light tingling on your neck, otherwise nothing at all.

So it really amazed Zelda how Link managed to master the Light arrow, given no further instruction than the scribbles she left on the scroll handed to him. In the short time between receiving the scroll and striking down Ganondorf he understood the complexities of the weaving enough that the attack became more than a hopeful fly careening in its suicide pact against the black armour. If she didn't know better she'd chalk it up to divine intervention.

And yet divine intervention would explain so much, like how among the ebb of losing Link managed to fuse with Navi in the battle against the Dark Angels, and pull out an array of attacks that have never been imagined before. Condensing air has been considered as a projectile, but never as a footstep or a cage. He couldn't have just pulled such miracles out of thin air.

Zelda was a fairly religious person, not to the point of zeal but neither to apostasy. Link once told her that his cry of Din's Fire wasn't a reaffirmation of his faith but _really_ Din's Fire, as well as Farore's Wind and Nayru's Love. If you believed in the Triforce you believed in the gifts of the Goddesses. But it seemed so unlikely that they'll all favour one person, for records of previous Heroes of Time never mentioned the arts Link was all too inclined to display.

A quick pat on her wrist pulled her away from her musings, and with a grateful smile Zelda saw the doctor off. He proceeded to Link's bed and just looking at the boy's forearm could see a thousand and one ailments in desperate need of curing. Grumbling about taxes the doctor dragged a stool over and tried to roll Link over. He protested with a snort but then rolled over himself.

The moon seems larger tonight, Zelda contemplated inwardly, her gaze returning to the skies. Not as large as Link's story about the moon approaching the world in a suicidal collision, but with an almost celestial glow it seemed to resound with some greater beauty. On that point so did the stars as well, twinkling in their calm and everlasting fashion. Some speculated that the stars were not eternal, but Zelda didn't want to believe that – they were there when her great-grandmother was born; they'll be there when her great-granddaughter dies.

Well, there was nothing like the present. Flexing her arm quickly she tucked it underneath the blankets, revelling in the warmth hoarded beneath the insulating sheets.

Oh yes, that was another difference between the care of her and Link: he was kept near the freezing window.

_-S-_

"Aw, don't be such a miser – tell us!"

Reza groaned at the seemingly ever present chatter. "It's one in the bloody night. Go away and let me sleep."

"Only when you tell us, come on! It's not going to hurt!" One of Sierra's friends cajoled. Reza couldn't remember her name. Rhymed with abalone.

Sierra managed to gather everyone who could speak under the age of twelve and use the might of the youthful union to pressure Reza into talking. If she were in a patronising mood she would have fed them some bull to get them to bug off. If it wasn't with the moon at its apex she would have shushed them away with her normally genial care for small children.

Alas, her headache still persisted and they just grievously ripped her free from the warm hug of sleep. "I will count to three," she said slowly and clearly, "and after that I will throw whoever still remains out of this window." As a demonstration she tugged Sierra's wallet and tossed it outside. The adamant cry was cut off at the sound of rupees tinkling free two seconds later.

"One," her voice rang clearly in the midnight air, and a professional might have selected her for a career of singing had one been nearby. It had a velvety richness so rare among women, an intriguing composition of crystal clarity and alluring huskiness. Pity it was being used to send the smaller children scampering.

Three fingers went up, and one finger went down. The nine year olds looked at each other uncertainly. This was the legend who summoned a fiery duplicate of herself and melted sand into glass, the same legend being the youngest to ever join the teachings of the Black.

"Two," with unwilling sluggishness Reza dragged herself free of the bed's embrace, using her imposing height to intimidate many others into abiding her wishes. The shadow cast by blocking the moon's glow drew a 'v' on the floor, and the image shifted as one finger went down, leaving the last one standing by itself.

The Gerudo were famed for their golden eyes and red hair. Under the right conditions, these traits would be used to describe their exotic beauty. Under the Gerudo preferred conditions, these traits would depict them as glowing eyes demons framed by fire. It worked amazingly well.

"And three," as the final finger went down Sierra and her remaining stalwart friends scattered, probably to pick up the dropped rupees before a lucky patrol did. Fist held high against the glow of the moon, Reza looked like a monolith of victory, the paragon of conquest. With a satisfied sigh she plopped back onto her bed, frowning slightly as it cooled in the interval she spent standing.

"Huh, the moon's bigger tonight," she commented aloud before snuggling back into her dream of the glowing sands.

_-S-_

Anywhere else in Hyrule and the idea of applied warmth would be gratefully accepted. Down in the humidifying labyrinths of the Sheikah Caverns, Malik was bordering on tears regarding said application.

The High Mages had a short schedule, so it was in their best interests if their protégé healed as quickly as possible. Their remedy was moxibustion and acupuncture with heated needles. It wasn't meant to hurt, but Malik was pretty sure one of them was being spiteful about the blanket.

The room was enchanted with the music of arcane echoes, chimes of unseen bells sleepily reflecting off the magically made walls. Occasionally a violin will join in the poignant melody, building its volume to match the majesty of the dancing chimes before dying down in regrettable goodbyes.

This music would normally have sent Malik into a drowsiness so profound it would be analogised to the slumber of peaceful death, but normally Malik didn't feel like a hedgehog with a really bad hair day.

He once argued his father's case that sleep was the best medicine. In proud expectation that his father would stick up to him, blood bound to blood, he dared challenge the High Mages not for the first time.

The moral of that story? Blood's bound to blood alright, but the chains of hierarchy are harder to break. A father would give his own child for the good of his country! Oh, les horreurs, la douleur! Such a shame burnt upon Malik's tear ducts! Such grievance!

"Helloo," he whined, fidgeting under the straps holding him down, "is it time to take out the needles yet? Helloo, anybody there? This isn't funny."

Maybe it was his imagination, but he was pretty sure someone was laughing.

_-S-_

Have you ever tried to embarrass your siblings? Link probably would have if he had a younger brother or sister. He wasn't sure how old each of the Goddesses were in relation to each other. Maybe they were triplets. Regardless of age, Farore seemed to take an unhealthy delight in pointing out the most… interesting parts of Din's voyage at the country below. Link believed that his face would be perpetually red.

"Oh, you should have seen her face!" Farore laughed boyishly, slapping her hand on her thigh. "You'd think she got caught in an uncompromising situation! Ah yes, she did!" Breaking off in raucous laughter, Link joined in with nervous chuckles. Could he go now?

As an answer to his prayers Farore suddenly stilled, concentrating on a sound he would never here. Pouting unhappily, she dispelled the couches and wiggled her feet. "Oh pooh, now Din doesn't like where I'm going with this. And I haven't told the juicier bits yet. 'The life of a deity is fraught with humour' and all that." Brushing back her hair, she took a stock survey of Link before nodding.

"Jokes aside, don't go playing with your life force, okay? We really don't want you turning grey suddenly and falling down to Alzheimer's disease."

"What disease?" Link asked curiously.

Farore shrugged. "Nayru's the Goddess of the Future. Ask her later. For now, you must go." Suddenly wearing a toga and winding back a hammer, she smiled a smile with too many teeth. "Goodbye."

_-S-_

"Note to self: pain does not exist over there," Link muttered to himself, raising his arm to block the sunlight streaming on his face. A peculiar knob underneath his head under exploration proved to be his hair tied high. "I came in with loose hair," he complained half-heartedly, "I expect to come out with loose hair too."

That brought in the question of where 'in' and 'out' was referring too, and after a lot of eye rubbing he got up to take a good look through the window to his right.

Well, the hills told him nothing. A lot of places had hills, although he wasn't sure how many had such a collection of flowers. The small stream was of no relevance either: if there was a hill, there had to be something that made it nearby. It was where the stream led that provided the needed position.

Aha, a moat! Now only one place has a moat. Looking back into the room he was in, only one place could afford large marble pillars and walls adorned with tapestries too. He was either in Zelda's sponsored Academy or the Palace, and he was betting surely on the latter.

Hopping to his feet, he was surprised to see his left leg from the shin down held within a cast. It took a lot of pin-wheeling and bouncing to regain his balance, and he found it strange that he could only pin-wheel with one arm. A check down showed his right arm in a cast as well, the doctors not wanting him to stress his shoulder injury.

He first hobbled to find his shoes, then realised that he would only wear one half of the pair and would more than likely lose the other half. Upset, he hobbled to find his cap, to find that he couldn't undo the tie in his hair for his cap to fit on nicely. Frowning noticeably, he hobbled out of the room, hat clenched tightly within one hand. Whoever that took care of him was at least nice to give him half a pair of slippers.

It was the time when the servants and maids were the busiest, an hour where all the Royalty and guests were out enjoying breakfast or morning exercise and so leaving a window of opportunity to clean up the rooms discretely. As such, the hallways was always filled with one servant striding by, and it was their rigorous training that made sure none of them looked at the cursing hobbling boy. The distinct 'clunk' of the leg cast thumping against the marble flooring was louder than their soft-soled footfalls, but Link was too preoccupied with his grumbles to be apprehensive of the juxtaposition of sound.

First stop is finding that damned sword. Zelda said it went awry, and for hopeful her that was probably bad. It would probably be kept with the Feral sword. Link had a strong suspicion what was wrong with it.

Scratch that; first is finding Navi. Or food. Generally if he found food Navi would be nearby. Hopping on his free foot to turn around, Link clunked along the opposite direction in search for the mess hall. Navi could tell him about the sword.

There were of course a few obstacles in the way, and the first one being stairs. To go down, it requires some bending of the knee, which the cast seemed too happy to refuse. Pausing at the stair's entrance, Link's contemplation of this dilemma was cut by a voice.

"Link, you're not meant to be pressing weight on that leg!" Turning to look at the speaker, he gave a smile and a wave to Zelda's approaching form. "You'd think that with the number of times you're knocked unconscious you'd have picked up some infirmary etiquette: don't move until told to."

Link smiled apologetically, scratching his head. "Eh, I'll never get anything done just lying around. By the way, can you help me undo this hair tie? It feels a bit unnatural."

Zelda rolled her eyes but complied. "The doctors needed your hair out of the way to get a clear view of your shoulder wound. Someone wanted to cut it, but I managed to talk him out of that idea."

Link hummed in thought. "Thanks. So what's with all these casts? I've faced worse and only walked off with a bandage or two."

She raised an eyebrow, guiding him away from the stairs. "Faced worse?" she asked with mild disbelief, "you reduced the bones in those regions into splinters. Fine, not splinters," she admitted to his wide eyes, "just a lot of hairline fractures criss-crossing all over, some deeper than the others. The doctors just wanted them to heal nicely, and nicely is when you don't move them around."

Link blew out a puff of air, extricating the cap from his right hand's fingers and placing it on his head. "Fine, so maybe I do get more done just lying around. So where are we going? Not to the infirmary again, is it?"

Zelda's face was painted with a grimace, and she shook her head grimly. "Normally so, but you have more important matters to attend to." Pointing further ahead, she clarified, "We're heading to the armoury – the enchanted spell kind."

He picked up the serious disposition too, frowning as well. "So what's the problem this time? Where are the guards?" Normally as you get closer to any large pool of weapons the number of guards rises, but so far that did not seem to be the case. In fact, it appeared that even the servants were taking liberties to avoid this part of the hallways.

As they moved on the only sentinel at watch was Navi, dutifully flying back and forth at the door's gates. When he repeated his question to her, her answer was dour.

"They've been reporting hallucinations. Some involve them going around killing everyone in sight, the others being ghosts of flying knives stabbing out and killing them." She rubbed her face wearily, adding, "It seems those that can't touch mana get affected worse than people like you and me. Even then I'm getting a bit sick."

As Zelda unlocked the doors and pushed them open, they were treated to a disturbing view: lying in opposite corners of the room were the two swords, both held in containment and talismans of Light hanging across the cross guard, yet they illuminated the room with a corrupted dark purple, sickness pulsing off them in disconcerting harmony.

Link shuddered as one of the pulses touched him. In the corner, waiting, hiding, smiling. A spike of steel rolling through wizened and decaying fingers, ready to jump out and strike. Strike fast. Strike now. Kill, kill, kill!

Taking a step back, he sighed deeply. "'In the end'," he quoted sickly, " 'I win'."

­_-S-_

A/N: Ouch… 12:31… at night. Whew, didn't I push to get this story out. And to imagine I wrote the last twelve or so pages today…or yesterday, depending how you look at the time. Bleh. Sorry if the quality is not up to par – this is what happens when you rush things, and I feel a bit rusty with my battle scene.

As always, please deliver any comments and criticisms. I would right now like to fall into a coma and wake up next century, but I'll postpone that until after I've seen all my constant reviewers' comments. As shallow as this might sound, it is the reviews that encourage and inspire me to keep writing. The fact that I've visibly touched enough people for them to reply… It's a beautiful feeling.

In case you don't know what moxibustion is, it's the application of cups heated over candles onto your back. I might get the physics wrong, but the hot air, being less dense than normal air, means less is needed to fill the cup. So when it's on your back and it cools, it therefore sucks up a lump of your back. Leaves large brown rings when finished. Meant to be good for your health too.

If you found anything confusing, uncertain of and anything like that, please let me now. As I have belatedly discovered, replying to my reviewer's replies (by e-mail, of course) to clarify things creates more personal bonds between author and reader. Makes you feel appreciated, and stuff. If you felt the flip from fairly serious to hopefully comedic back to serious is a bit off, mention that.

Oh yeah, and reading 'All Quiet on the Western Front'. It's inspiring, I tell you. Enjoy.


	33. Caravan

A/N: Crapcrapcrapcrap buggerbuggerbuggerbugger aw hell no! Hah, you could probably say that in tune to some rhythm. Lost me USB stick. Not only did it contain my fanfiction, it contained my school work. Returning to school is going to be such a pain... I once made a promise (can't remember which fanfic) to update within four weeks. I don't think I can keep that anymore. Information... lost...

Chapter 31: Caravan

If an artist were to paint the sky as it was right now, he would be struck by the question of where to start, how to make it lively. The former would require skill, and the latter a lot of imagination: the sky was painted a dull grey all over, the clouds spread like a layer of butter to shield out the vibrancy that accompanies the sun. Light had been so well filtered that a person could stare at the sun without discomfort, the lacklustre yellow glow proving no harm to the eyes.

Still, a mundane sky was no reason for the citizens below to be mundane themselves. Sitting within his straw chair, Link observed the soldiers train beneath the bluish overcast of the clouds. It seemed strange, but Link believed that things were now picking up darker shades, as if he was seeing things through tinted glass. Shadows appeared more pronounced, and white had a shading of blue or purple.

Maybe it was the lighting, for the skies had been unnaturally gloomy the past week. Maybe it was something else.

"Too high," Link called out, throwing a walnut shell that bounced off a soldier's nose, "you're holding the sword too high and leaving your lower half exposed."

The shell did not hurt, but any injury caused was by humiliation. Rubbing his nose angrily, the soldier glared at Link and teetered on the edge of keeping his mouth in check. Fixing his stance, he held the sword at a lower angle, flicking his eyes with the message 'happy now?' at Link. He was further incensed to see that Link wasn't paying attention to him anymore.

"Too slow," Link flicked another shell, striking a different soldier's abdominal plating. It bounced off with a ring, and when the soldier didn't immediately correct the problem another one followed suit. "You move that slow and even my fairy here will have enough muscle to beat you." Navi shouted something at him, but it was muffled through his cap.

One soldier had enough. "Why are we even listening to you?" he shouted irritably, dropping his sword so that he could cross his arms in front of Link. "Why are you even here, anyway?" Taking a few steps forward, he loomed threateningly over the boy's form.

Link was less than impressed and stared back with a passive glance. "Because I can kick your butts blindfolded and hopping on one leg," he replied flatly, a small smirk forming at the soldier's fuming face, "equipped with a rolling pin and dancing to the tune of 'The Rice Planters'. Or, I could if I wasn't wearing a cast, but that's coming off tomorrow. Heck, even now I could probably wipe the floor with you by gripping a stick with my feet and moving around on a handstand."

"Oh, you think you're so Goddess damned smart you can boss us, eh?" The soldier yelled at Link's bored face, "why don't we see some practice to your prattle?" He took a step back to give clearance for a sharp kick at Link's chair, but wasn't expecting a walnut to bounce off his steel greaves and lodge itself up the left nostril.

"Temper, temper," Link said coolly, hands clasped together and showing no sign he flicked the walnut, "this is what makes a bad soldier worse. You asked me why I'm here. Clearly you men are not of the Royal Guard standard, and given how they're dying off like fruit flies over there I was given orders to train a new batch of them." Passing a sweeping glance through the ranks – one man too chubby, another too arrogant, another too shy – he shook his head. "Clearly I'm wasting my time on this bunch."

That was actually an exaggeration on Link's part, for while the Royal Guard numbers were falling due to the sudden assassinations and general mayhem, it wasn't so dire that more needed to be trained. When he complained of boredom to Zelda, she suggested that he pass his wisdom to some of the training soldiers. Some could argue that as an order, for the word of the Royal Family is to be obeyed, but Zelda never orders.

Nonetheless the soldiers didn't know that, and Link's inexpressive face and slow munching of the bag of walnuts in his lap did little to tell them otherwise. Stamping his foot angrily, the soldier turned sharply and stalked off, picking up his dropped sword and throwing Link a venomous glare. Link flicked a walnut shell at him when he held the sword too low.

Ah, what a sorry sight they made! Fifteen brooding soldiers, sulking because of a boy no older than 15 sitting on the side chomping away like the magic bean seller. There would be the occasional squawk of surprise as a shell bounced off their noses, wrists and torsos, but the normal person would not suspect the child of such a thing, as the most perceptive person would be strained to see that sudden burst of speed from Link's hand. To anyone else, the scene was one of a boy in green eating walnuts, some unhappy soldiers and walnut shells mystically appearing to hit anyone that made a mistake.

As amusing as it was to see the soldiers bite off their cursing and try to ignore him, Link eventually ran out of walnuts and just watching them quickly lost its fun. Stretching his free arm, he hopped to his feet, fetching the crutch so kindly proffered by the medics and hobbled off, leaving the soldiers to pack the straw chair and clean the mess of scattered shells.

Only when they left the training courtyard did Navi flutter out of his cap, taking a deep breath to inhale the aroma of baking bread. Link initially wanted to head to his room and nap a bit, but decided on a detour to the kitchens first.

"Why'd you have to be so mean to those guys? They've only been enlisted for a month," Navi asked, settling down on Link's shoulder for the ride. "It can't hurt to be nice to rookies."

Link shook his head, wearing a light grin. "With soldiers you have to be tough, not nice. The idea of discipline is to stamp out any thoughts of rebellion out of them, and what better way to reign in the spirit than to teach a little humility?" He ignored Navi's snort at that. "Besides, that guy had an ego larger than he earned, which is alright if he becomes a general or something like that, but I can't see him as one. Better he play the dutiful soldier."

It took a bit of tugging, but Link managed to open the kitchen's servant door. A small wooden door hidden behind a red tapestry, it clearly hadn't been used much as no one deigned the effort to oil the joints. Navi grew quiet for a moment, trying to adjust to the wave of heat and smells before continuing the conversation.

"I guess so. I still think you were overly harsh – throwing walnut shells? Come on, that's just flaunting and showing off."

Link nodded at that, smiling proudly. "Another reason to be so mean: teach respect. Few know that I'm the Hero of Time, and less would believe that he'll be a kid. They might not like me, but those guys are definitely going to respect me."

Half the cooks knew Link as Zelda's guest and treated him cordially, and the other half knew Link as some poor injured boy and treated him kindly. Both combined resulted that when politely asking for something to eat, half of the chefs gave him small high scale snacks like salmon slices or caviar, and the other half gave him the lower scale but more foodstuffs like fresh bread or roasted chicken. With a sincere 'thank you' Link was strolling out with a trolley loaded with food. He was set for the day.

"A feast for the kings," Navi cheered within her declared platter of fruit salad, "just because your arm is in a cast? Do you really have to take it off tomorrow?" The Palace's lower scale was still Castletown fine dining, and for one who spends weeks on end eating travel rations Castletown's lower scale is bliss. The effects added up.

Link confirmed it, although perhaps a bit regretfully. If he asked tomorrow, he probably would not receive that steaming minestrone and garlic bread... "We'll be leaving on the end of the week, and I can't travel wearing a layer of plaster."

Navi sighed, choosing to soothe herself with a deluge of kiwifruits and pineapple. "Where to?"

"Death Mountain, but we're first accompanying a caravan trail to Kakariko Village. They're carrying crates of emergency supplies, medical kits and weapons, that sort of stuff. Since I'm going that direction anyway, it won't hurt to wait a few days and act as a guard for them."

Dialogue dwindled into a halt as Link plopped himself into a sofa placed for passing people to rest in and used the trolley as a table to strike into the food. The cooks truly outdid themselves, chicken flesh retaining the savoured succulence yet maintaining the needed crispy skin to ascend into heavenly status. Sirloin cooked with such precise timing it stood on the thin threshold where all bacteria was killed of yet not cooked to the point it loses flavour. Butter dripped asparagus that had a crunchiness only a master chef could achieve.

Simplifying the descriptions, the food was good, and when everything was finished (an amazing feat, given that total weight of the food had to be a quarter of Link's) he and Navi were left very happy and very satiated.

His grin soon fell as he saw a procession pass by. Zelda herself was personally escorting it, keeping a careful eye on the iron box carried on the stretcher. Ancient runes were etched onto the metal, wards of entombment and warning. The lock that held the iron box shut even had encryptions on it, and required both magic and the key to open it.

The procession of sorcerers and priests was a clear sign what was held within the box: the two swords, Feral and the newly named Despair. At the back of the procession were a few soldiers carrying a crate made of wood from a peach tree, more runes engraved on the vertices and warning signs pasted in an almost random fashion over it and the lid. Scrutinising closely Link could see they were using enchanted silver for the nails. Clearly the crate was for the iron box to rest in on the caravan ride.

Zelda gave Link a small wave, but quickly returned her focus back on the iron box. That was understandable, for even though heavily subdued Link without extending his mana sensitivity further could feel the tendrils of dark magic snaking out, tentacles reaching and searching for prey. Carelessness would extract a heavy price.

_-S-_

Maybe the first time was a fluke, but ever since that night, no matter how hard Reza tried she couldn't summon the void. So far with the others it would take a lot of training to even touch it, but once they did they could summon it anytime they wanted. She managed to control it on the first day, yet since then failed to master its passing.

Not that Reza did not try – hardly that, especially given the timetable set. She still had to attend history studies, mathematics and literature, along with survival skills and maintaining physical fitness. All that ate up a large chunk of the day, so as to prevent clashes of timetables Nabooru set the special training to start at 8pm and end at midnight. To not try your best would result in substandard progress.

At present the arithmetic teacher was talking (with considerable excitement, Reza noted) about irrational numbers. Frankly, Reza did not see the point in learning that – they're irrational, for crying out loud, you're never going to need them in real life! When are you going to square root, cube root or whatever-root a quantity in real life?

Nonetheless she took down notes as with her other classmates, scribbling down examples written on the board. Staring outside she watched the long shadows of the patrols. Hyrule was entering the Season of Twilight, where night time arrived noticeably sooner and the days shortened. It was only six o'clock and the sun was setting. In a few minutes darkness would settle in, and the teacher being a stickler for conserving lamp oil would end the lesson slightly earlier. And then she would have two hours to recuperate and digest all the information before heading out for training beneath Nabooru.

Sierra didn't know how much of a lucky bugger she was. Given that she was the younger sister, in the event that she took down some erroneous notes or forgot altogether (she was famed for extracting money from her peers and then napping in class as celebration) she could rely on Reza's own diligence to copy notes from her older texts.

Gerudo schooling held a weird philosophy: remember first, understand later, and remember last. They'd teach you a bunch of facts, see if you picked up the pattern, and if you didn't they'll teach it to you. That would help you remember it fully. Students were ranked not according to test scores, although that played an important role, but to speed in analysing, selecting and breaking down facts and figures to master it alone. That method was hard, but Reza believed probably the best.

On the opposite side of the spectrum would be the way the Kokiri teach each other. You wanted to know something, you played around. Knowledge was only rewarded to those who seek it, and education wasn't in that sense compulsory. Granted, given their long lifespan they have all the time in the world to search things up, so they weren't any worse of intellectually than their counterparts elsewhere. From what Saria told Reza, the Kokiri were inquisitive in nature, so when they saw something strange they were quick to find an explanation. Why do birds fly? Because they have wings. How come when I have wings I can't fly? Because you're not strong enough and too heavy. The word 'because' was so well used they used a gesture to replace it rather than waste breath instead.

Reza dimly wondered how the Zoras and Gorons taught their children. She didn't get far on that line of thought as the teacher finally gave in to the failing light and cleaned out the board, her own signal for the students to leave.

"Off for your assassin training now, hmm?" The girl behind Reza giggled, dancing free from her desk to complete a somersault and land on Reza's. Reza took a moment to curse the shoeprints on her notes before looking at the speaker.

"Hello, Cat," she greeted. Katara liked her feline nickname as it represented her unnatural grace and catty smile. Previously Reza's childhood playmate, she was famed for her quick tongue and eloquence.

"That's the problem these days," she said sagely, nodding wisely and not bothering to take her feet off her friend's work, "too much of a burden on the youths of tomorrow. Sisters toil under the weight of sisters, and for what? The study of triangles, or quadrilaterals? The mastery of foreign languages? I say this: we are not diplomats, we are not paper pushers! Abolishment, I say, eradication!"

Given her journeys with Link Reza was slightly behind in her studies, so the Class Mother chose to put her in the lower group until she caught on par. Katara was good with words, but horrible with numbers and as such shared this class with Reza. She still counted with her fingers and toes, and any number larger than twenty stumped her.

"Yes, yes. Can you get off my work?" Katara didn't want to be a fighter, a peculiarity in Gerudo culture. She wanted to be a dancer, and spent many hours flowing to the tune of the crackling fires and night winds. A strange combination, she fell apart singing but could play the piccolo with soulfulness seen only in the most experienced bards.

"Ah, my pardons," she exclaimed and hopped off the desk, daintily landing with an unnecessary pirouette, "that was unintentional. Mayhap to relieve you of the stress of work, shall we luxuriate in the winds of the warm sands and cold waters?"

Reza blinked. "Sorry, what?"

Katara's shoulders slumped, a dejected look on her face appearing for a moment. Clearing her throat, she clarified, "Walk around the waterfall?"

Ah. "Yeah, sure."

_-S-_

"You morons, get it right! Clockwise rotation, angling for a straight arm! When the horse leaps and fire from the caravan corner!" Navi screamed at the assembled protection. Where Link was the master of discipline, Navi was the master of tactics. When asked she said it was from playing chess, go and checkers simultaneously in a fey board-game tournament.

She was trying to teach the forty horseback riders what she called the 'arrow belt', where the riders run a protective circle around the caravans, firing at a certain point so as to release a continuous wave of arrows at an enemy area. The rest of the circle would be used to nock another arrow into position, search for attackers coming from different sides and using swords if necessary to slap away encroaching enemies.

Most of her tactics involved setting the guards in a line, her explanation being that this is a caravan line after all. Against a side attack her solution was to get the soldiers to run in a line from the back of the trail to the front and back again, more focus spent on reaching the destination and turning around effectively than actually hitting the enemy. Horses are best used in motion, Navi said, and this way you act like a saw, shearing through any that approach.

Link clapped his hands when they finally got her manoeuvre done right, man after man firing at the same spot. The target post used to describe the enemy position was soon splintered with arrows. There were forty guards, excluding him, for four caravans. All of them were of average calibre in horseback archery and swordsmanship. While the attack against the Zoras – who were thankfully recuperating from the sudden epidemic – seemed to empty out the Dark Copy reserves for a while, the number of Stalfos appearances had trebled and Stalchid numbers multiplied more than tenfold. It would be a three day journey to reach Kakariko Village, slowed down by the caravans, so they can expect two nights worth of attacks.

"I don't see the point in this," one soldier commented to his companion, forgetting to hide his voice from Navi's keen ears, "I heard that it is the dead that now stalk these plains at night. Are a few arrows going to stop them? You'd think we need something more substantial than some twigs with sharp points."

Navi floated over to him, her glow preventing the soldier from seeing her facial expression clearly. "Why yes, you're absolutely right. I can't trust that your aims are good enough to always aim at the eyes, so we will need something more conducive." Rising sharply, she barked out at the porters watching the training, "You men there! Get some spears, the heavy ones! Our fellow soldier over here pointed out a noticeable flaw in the training!"

Floating back to Link and ignoring the groans of the tired soldiers, she muttered quietly to herself, "Can't use the defensive phalanx – too stretched, we'll need more men and it's wasted on horses. Ha, I have just the plan, those soldiers better know what they're doing... eh, Link? Where're you going?"

Link waved his had dismissively, picking himself off the ground. "Just to check on a few things, nothing important. I'll be back soon."

Navi looked at his retreating form for a moment, before turning around and snapping out, "Alright you slackers, line up! We're going to do something a little different now..."

Her voice faded into the background as Link progressed towards the cargo area where some men were packing the crates of supplies for journey tomorrow. One crate they were told to leave alone until give notice, and it was this crate that Link approached.

Despite the layers of enchantments, the seal was not perfect. Crouching next to the box, Link sighed as he pushed his out an aura of his magic, feeling for the dark tendrils. It was a bit late for damage control, but he might as well see what he can do now...

Foul magic was like snakes. Cool, patient predators of venomous intent, lurking, slithering, striking. To search for one was to hunt for death, and to willingly grapple with it was to risk its bite. For Link to truly touch the magic, he could not cast a layer of armour, but with his bare self touch the traces that still echoed.

Sighing, he traced the trace oozing out of the box, and made contact.

_-S-_

The backdrop of the waterfall was a beautiful one to walk by. The fading light aimed for one final visual spectacle before darkness sets in, refracting to create half a rainbow through the waters. Katara had left a while ago, to practice her usual dance with the embers. Stopping to admire the crystal waters, Reza couldn't help but smile at this lasting form of beauty.

It was a bright light in these dark times, being able to see something not corrupted by the growing shadow from all around. Nabooru had ordered the guards to push their defences further forward, moving from behind the bridge to in front of it in many posts. The bow-maker was happy for the extra business from setting the crossbows, but others were worried about how thinly this would stretch their forces to cover more ground.

Even now to allow the most sentry duty at one point someone came up with a complex shift system that allowed maximum coverage with minimum soldiers. It had the unfortunate effect of leaving some areas unguarded for a short period of time, as was now with no one near the bridge.

Stretching her arms up, Reza gave a sigh of pleasure at the sounds emanating from her back. Sometimes you could create the illusion of peace by watching the red bask of the sun, the soft snakes of wind blown sand, the dark bluish shadows from the departing clouds and the cold glint of flowing water...

Reza froze suddenly. Water doesn't glint...

She had only a second to dodge a giant sword with a Stalfos attached leaping out from behind the waterfall, jaw open in its silent battle cry.

_-S-­_

The magic was acting strangely. Violent, for something contained within its seal. A man watching wondered what the boy in green was doing sweating sitting down, but he could not see the magic Link was wrestling with, trying to touch without being touched in turn. He could not see how the runes hidden behind the peach wood crate were melting slightly, the two swords within reverberating with unexpected anger.

Link couldn't see that either, but he could feel the magic lace out as lances, spearing at him, hoping to define a proper latch that would bend him to their will. He could feel how his own mana had to be used for defensive purposes, working as many shields to herd and protect. He could feel the ruthless strength behind the swords' magical surges.

In the back of his mind he wondered why they were acting up now, when they seemed sort of quiet in the past. Was it due to him coming close to them, or was it something else? In the meantime Link pressed his will into resisting the dark magic.

_-S-_

Stalfos in general were unnaturally agile, moving their weight with speeds none living could hope to achieve. For something with no supporting flesh their blows were mighty enough to cleave a cow in two, slicing through bone and sinew like chaff. The only thing you could truly rely on was their limited intelligence, held only to the simple rules of block, swing sword, jump and kill.

This was not the general Stalfos, Reza decided as she flipped backwards to avoid a heavy slash at what would have been her waist. For one it was too quiet, the steps were silent and even its violent thrusts and slashes broke no sound from the wind. Dropping to her knees to avoid a head chop she rolled to the side, wondering where it got all its complicated sword strokes.

Rolling to her back she managed to swing her feet up to block a stroke that would have sliced her in two, the friction between the soles of her shoes and the blade's rusted sides keeping her leg clamp effective. The muscle strain was unbearably painful, and she could almost hear muscles snap like taut coils.

With no facial muscles the Stalfos could not grin and with no voice box it could not speak. It gave no taunts, abyssal black eye sockets showed no emotion. It rather gave a clawed foot to the side, hardened bone ripping through her skin and flesh as it sent her tumbling away.

Screaming as blood gathered from the three punctures on her thigh, she wondered what on earth was taking the patrol so long to come back. They usually never left a place unguarded for more than half a minute.

There was no time to cry for help. Just as she staggered to her feet it launched itself at her, sword high and shield raised. From its elevated position, she could see something dark writhing within its skull.

_-S-_

Red. Link started centralising his magic, worried by the change in magical 'colour'. From near black it changed to red, calming down considerably. He did not let down his guard though, in case this was a trap. Tentatively he sent a sliver of his own mana to cut right into the red magic and explore, but had to withdraw it rapidly as it surged, hungry to devour the approaching mana. Frowning, he watched the red tint glow darker before calming down again.

­_-S-_

It was to Reza's surprise when the Stalfos suddenly stopped moving, changing from a half lunge into a collected position, shield and sword resting against its legs. Stumbling back a few steps, Reza watched warily as the blood – her blood – lacing its foot started crawling up, dying the yellowish bones red, seeping into the porous marrow to flush up faster, and passing from joint to joint until the entire Stalfos was red...

The blood overflowed at its skull, changing from mere colouring into actual liquid as it dribbled from the withered cracks on the cranium, oozing the sockets of the nose and eyes and the dripped gaps between the teeth. The blood coalesced on its jaw, to fall and paint the sword below and enforce its serrated edge with clot.

She had only enough time to pull her lips back in revulsion before the Stalfos surged forward again, mouth open in its silent howl as it charged with unnatural agility. Sword striking the ground she once stood upon, it carved right through the dust and rock to bring the blade back towards Reza, using its shield to bat her in its path.

Ignoring the smear of blood from the shield's impact, Reza could only watch in horror as the red edge ascended, with enough power behind it to surely rip her in half. Mind flailing, she pushed her thoughts to find something that would keep her alive.

As the blade started to dig into her chest, there was the sound of screaming wind and Reza was gone, speckles of black and orange scattering where she once was.

_-S-_

If Link could describe the magic he was trying to contain, it was angry. From its red colour black started to intermingle with it, creating a chaotic mix as it surged against his green wall of mana. Angered as he managed to create a complete sphere around it, the magic lashed against the barriers, hurling colours against the shuddering barricades.

The man watching from a distance jolted when he saw the crate jump slightly, wood tearing and peeling of as thin strips. Looking around nervously he strode off, saying to himself that the boy knew what he was doing.

The magic seemed polarised, as it suddenly applied all the red magic on one side and black magic on the other, forcing Link to charge his mana shield to its opposing charge before it switched, causing Link to need to swap again. Link wished he never tampered with the box, for now he feared giving up this silent battle will leave things out of control.

­_-S-_

Reza watched as the blade flew right through her, and turned around to see the Stalfos swing its sword again in anger. She was surprised to see herself sink through the ground slightly before 'bouncing' off something, setting her body above ground level.

Everything looked different, and she internally knew why. Everything was coloured in shades of grey, ignorant of light levels or distance. The bottom of the waterfall should've looked darker than the top with the canyons blocking the dwindling sunlight, but the water body was painted a pale grey, bubbles shown as regions of white.

The only things that were exceptions to this rule were lines running through the earth. Bright colours that alternated between every shade in the spectrum, they glowed so brightly that the greys of everything around it seemed to fade in the background. Inside the Stalfos' skull was something similar too, except that this was a seething turmoil of crimson red and ragged black.

She had finally grasped the void, and instinctually knew all those colours were spirit magic, despite not following the expected orange. Looking at herself, she could see herself as pure colour as well, but slowly fading in strength and vibrancy.

The Stalfos swished around, lashing its sword erratically in an angry manner. Cautiously Reza stalked forward, sure to keep her footing above the lines of spirit in the ground. From what she could hazard, colour could only touch colour. Perhaps there was one way to defeat this thing...

When she was a metre away from it, the Stalfos suddenly turned around, angry swirls in its skull suddenly splitting to the black at the back, red pouring down and painting the bones leading to the sword. Surprised she jumped aside as it swung the blade, watching as the red crashed against a ley line, both colours hissing with the red receding back into the skull and the flowing line greying slightly.

Skipping out of its sight range Reza looked at her arm, watching the tanned skin get more transparent. Apparently there will be a time when she expends all her spirit reserves, so she had to defeat this Stalfos quick.

_-S-_

Link couldn't hold out forever, gritting his teeth as sweat flowed down the contours of his face and dripped onto the dry grass beneath. The magic's rapid and unpredictable switching from black and red was tiring him quickly, and a quick check showed that he was running out of mana, and would start touching upon his life reserves.

Link didn't want his life reserves to touch the dark magic. He knew not what would happen, but did not want to risk tainting, scarring. Allowing a small grunt to escape Link had to find a different method than just pressing the magic back into the box.

Loosening his guard to allow more flexibility, as expected the magic lurched to strike where was weakest. Just as quickly though at the opposite side Link sent a hammer of his mana smashing the other colour, driving the mana drill deep into the black aura's heart and forcing the red force to withdraw and guard the other.

Would this work? Link didn't know, but the amount of attention needed on this meant he could not call out for help, and his cage had effectively prevented any mage from feeling the chaotic growth within. For now that was his best bet, sending lances anywhere the red magic was not, pulling it to spread its shield and deflect the needles worming closer to the centre.

_-S-_

Reza grinned, skipping through the Stalfos' chest to avoid the red coated blade. Jumping up her hand sneaked towards the pulsing spirit within the skull, only to rapidly withdraw it as the red colour transferred to the shield and tried to bat her hand aside.

Arching backwards she back flipped out of its range of sight, running around and striking from behind. As expected the Stalfos turned around, red sword using the torque to power its own spin. It did not expect her to jump on the sword, nor did she expect the searing pain sizzling up her feet.

Gasping Reza forced back the fog of pain from her mind, using the red spirit in the sword as a launch pad to get a clear strike at the writhing black in the skull. Just as her hand grasped the black orb the red rushed back in, burning and scalding as it washed over her arm.

A Gerudo knows no fear, but there was no other word Reza could describe to show how her hand greyed rapidly, gaining in transparency and losing in substance. She could feel her essence bleed out of her, the pain as the red ate at her wrists like boiling acid.

Screaming, partly in defiance and partly in pain, Reza forced the rest of her spirit into her arm, trying to ignore the ripping pain as life paled from her other limbs to flood her arm. Like a nail driving through wood she watched colour fill her hand and push beneath the burning layer of red. With the remains of her will, she forced her hand into a fist and crushed the black essence.

When the other Gerudo soldiers appeared, while some had their eyes bandaged the rest could see the Stalfos suddenly crumble and with a rush of wind Reza reappear, body flickering between existence and disappearing before solidifying and dropping heavily to the floor.

_-S-_

With a cry Link fell back, wiping the sweat from his eyes. With a final push he drove the stake of his mana into the centre of the black essence, running through it and pushing it back into the box. Now it was silent.

"Note to self," Link muttered through his heavy gasps for air, "when doing something like this, get Navi or Zelda." Inhaling a lungful of air, he held it within himself for a second before dispelling it. "Or at least a priest."

The last time he checked no one had even got close to the Temple of Time. For fear of more attacks, all the priests were given lodging within the Palace reliquaries to continue their religious worship. The Temple of Time was now empty and barren, the walls singing in mournful loss and the beams of light weakened by the growing layer of dust on the windows. Rumours were made about dark things lurked in the shadows of the Temple, beasts as ethereal as Boes but as vicious as Wolfos. And in the centre glittered the pedestal of the Spiritual Stones, dark marble alone amongst the strewn benches.

"It's awfully quiet," Link commented, admiring how his voice was quickly drowned out by the noise of crickets and birds fluttering. Link wondered how long he spent embroiled with the swords, for now the sky was losing its blue hue and picking up a reddish one. The trees no longer stood green and tall, but in the growing shadows waited dark and hidden. The clouds, bright floats of white at day shifted and thinned with the incoming night. "Anybody out there? Yo ho, am I alone?"

"That's a stupid question to ask if you are," Navi called out from behind him, floating to rest on his nose. "What are you doing out here anyway, and what the heck happened to the crate? It looks like you've been vandalising it!"

"I've been making our journey a little bit easier, and the crate has been making my life a little bit harder," he replied with a bit of mirth, raising one hand to scratch the tingle from Navi's presence. "Did our caravan guards learn any new skills?"

"Nope, unless you count obedience as a skill," she replied frowning at the peeled fibres on the ground, "just remembered a few drills."

"What's the difference?" Link asked.

"They always knew how to hold a sword, use a spear, and shoot with a bow – I didn't teach them how to use it better, nor in different ways," she stated matter-of-factly, "and we don't have time to make sure that's ingrained into them. What I did was make sure that when the time comes, they'll know which skill to use, where to use it and how to use it together. No use if one pompous buffoon tries to play hero and rushes to defeat all the Stalfos on his own."

"Hey," Link complained, feeling insulted, "I'm not a pompous buffoon, and I don't play hero – there's no choice on the résumé involved."

"Excluding you of course," she smiled apologetically, floating back to his head, "anyone that can kill a King Dodongo two thousand times larger and six thousand times heavier as a kid with a puny dagger and some ingenuity can take on a bunch of Stalfos any day."

"The Kokiri Sword is not puny, and it was called a sword for a reason," Link complained again, finally pulling his back off the ground. The sweat from his embroilment with the crate caused the dry grass beneath to cling onto the moist cloth, and he grumbled at the little blades poking into him. "And the King Dodongo is just stupid."

"Oh, will you stop nitpicking what I say? Pernickety, jeez! Anyway, let's get some food. I'm hungry, and feeling up for something barbecued."

_-S-_

Nabooru in general was a cheerful person. Those who knew her reasonably enough knew that behind that impartiality needed of a general she cracked jokes, laughed and fooled around. Those who didn't were intimidated by the power her entity embodied, one who could rally the might of the Gerudo armies with the absence of a King. Those who knew her even better wondered which was a façade for which: did the steel gauntlet hide the caring hands, or did the silk veil shadow the iron soul?

Now was not a time to crack jokes, laugh or fool around. Now was a time that Nabooru really wished she had some good news, becomes now was a time she only received bad news.

"So let's see," she summarised, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she slouched in the advisor's throne, "there were sudden attacks of Stalfos' just popping out of the blue. And these weren't our usual Stalfos, but ones that changed colour." Receiving grim nods from the injured kneeling in front of her, she continued, "and these didn't seem to be weak to basic smashing, but you had to aim for its head and strike through the eyes."

Sighing deeply, she sank deeper into the velvet cushions, moving her hand to rub her forehead instead. "Injuries?"

"Sixty one injured, thirty eight critically, Sister," one of the crowd replied.

"Sixty one injured for just twelve Stalfos?" Nabooru cried out in surprise, eyes wide in disbelief. Seeing the cheerless faces, some wrapped in bandages, she shook her head and wished this was some bad dream. "Deaths?"

"None, Sister." Not yet.

Life just couldn't get easier. Nodding tiredly, she flicked her wrist to dismiss them. Hands clasped in front of her jaw, she contemplated this new problem. Given that the Stalfos managed to attack once, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise if they attack another time.

Scribbling on a piece of paper she wedged in the throne cushion for convenience, she wrote the order to withdraw the young ones from border patrol. They'll have to find something else to train with, and while crossbows were fine against the smaller threat of the past, no one had the skill needed to aim at the eyes of a moving opponent quickly. Miss once and the time needed to wind back the rope meant death.

"Life could use a break about now," she muttered into the air.

_-S-_

It was a slow procession, following four caravans. Immediately at the start a problem arose when one caravan's wheel fell loose, and while the owner got a tongue lashing for not checking before they moved his workers set to fixing the problem. Just an hour into the procession the lead rider's bowels started disagreeing with him, and everything had to stop again as he did his business behind a tree. Two hours after that event half the entourage picked up food poisoning, and now Link was waiting patiently for them to finish emptying their stomachs.

"We're cursed, I tell you," one man whispered to another, "some foul demon wishes to slow down our progress! It wants us to remain in the fields at night, where its minions can strike us with bestial savagery!"

The other one rolled his eyes. "Right... what malady shall strike us next?"

The man was naturally superstitious, but when they finally got the caravan trail rolling another 'malady' struck them, and it was getting too predictable to be coincidental. One of the guards was smoking, and the embers fell out of his pipe onto the horse's mane. After they managed to calm the poor horse they realised they meandered two kilometres too far to the south, wasting a good amount of time and hitting a boggy part of the field. More time was wasted moving back up north, and upon stumbling across the decaying bones of an expanse of Stalchids that curiously didn't disappear with daybreak four of the caravan hands got afraid and fled back to Castletown, meaning they had to send a few guards to go and fetch them.

"He's right," Navi grumbled as the caravan line now halted for the umpteenth time due to some panic over the caravan containing lamp oil, "We're cursed. Where are those Kokiri wards, anyway?"

Link blinked. Zelda mentioned something about the Kokiri making wards for Kaepora Gaebora to scatter around the place. Maybe they were made to look all natural so no one noticed. Maybe someone tampered with them and made them obsolete. Maybe they weren't delivered at all, and the Kokiri never learnt the necessary magic to make them. Maybe they didn't learn it because something happened to Saria...

A scream from one of the men knocked Link out of his train of thought, and he slapped himself for it. No point thinking of maybes, better to think of now and later. Looking up he saw the man pointing to the horizon, blubbering with fright.

"A long shadow, I tell you!" he whimpered, huddling as close as he could to the crate filled with arrows, "a long shadow! It stretched across the field, and it didn't look Hylian at all! That was no living being!"

The man who tried to pry him away from the crate shook his head in impatience. "You were hallucinating, imagining things. It's the middle of the day, the sun's too high to make long shadows."

Another scream erupted from someone watching, the man falling down and pointing to the sky. "The sun! The sun!"

The sky changing colour was a good sign for Link to look up too. The sun was setting way too fast and way too early. Whipping out his ocarina he played the Sun Song, slowing the sun's descent and holding it behind the mountains.

Somehow, someone was tampering with the night cycle, and was proving strong enough that Link's own magic was barely enough to fight it off. Hovering on the edge of vision it visibly wobbled up and down, an indication of the struggle between Link and whoever else. Stuck on the border of twilight, it was enough for the Stalfos to appear. The shadows cast provided enough protection for the old magic to resurrect these fallen warriors, and all too soon Navi was barking orders for the guards to assemble.

"Aim for the eyes!" she shouted as a scatter of arrows flew free, the majority of them bouncing harmlessly off the Stalfos' skull and shoulders. Only one managed to strike true, and even then the Stalfos didn't disappear; just kneel down and pluck the arrow out.

Link was understandably worried. The weight of whatever magic fighting against the sun's presence seemed heavy enough that even Epona felt it, and his arms were feeling like lead from the pressure. Eyes darting from Stalfos to Stalfos he wondered why the music wasn't banishing them like it usually did. It was as if a heavy curtain had been placed around him, blocking the music from doing its work properly.

The defenders weren't doing very well. Arrows weren't working. Javelins weren't working. The teamsters got the caravans moving, but it was clear that the Stalfos would reach them before they managed to reach a more defensible position.

Decisions battling inside him Link pulled the ocarina from his lips and chose to whip out his bow instead. The solemn progression into night catalysed the earth to rupture, dirt spraying from seemingly random points as more Stalfos climbed free of their graves. Picking the closest one Link whispered the needed mantra, and feeling the appropriate magic swell within him, released the light arrow.

Men cheered when they saw the miniature comet streak through the darkening skies, providing illumination to better their aims. Those cheers died when they saw the magic gutter away, the light bleeding free from the shaft and dissipating. The arrow still held enough force to punch a small hole through the Stalfos' skull, but that wasn't much comfort to Link.

Whoever was placing that damned curtain over Link wasn't just blocking his music, but also blocking all forms of magic. Swearing angrily Link fixed the bow and quiver back onto his saddle and unsheathed his sword. Seeing his example, a few of the defenders dropped their bows and raised the spears, kicking their horses into a slow trot.

It appeared to Navi as a poorly written theatre piece of the vanquished heroes: standing ten metres away and on the edge of the hastily lit lamps' light was a ring of Stalfos, blades glinting threateningly at the frightened men within. The caravan creaked to a halt as the way forward was blocked. Almost contemptuously, a mocking dare, the closest ring of Stalfos took a step closer, letting the light glitter off their bleached bones.

"Give us flesh," one chattered. The rest charged. And as the ring converged, Link wondered whether Navi's continuous screams of "Hold ranks!" was doing any good. Not bothering to look at his fellow defenders, he singled a Stalfos that wasn't supported by its undead brethren and kicked Epona into action.

His sword whistled through the air, the sharp turn Epona made to allow Link full swing adding to the momentum of the attack. The Stalfos had not expected an attack so early, and as Link rode forth to deal with the next opponent his sword splintered the dusty bones, afterimages created and lingering from the white powder, supernatural night and border between dark and light.

Link breathed in some of the bone dust and sneezed. Just in time too, for an oversized machete swung where his head would have been. Link only noticed the danger when his sword jammed in the Stalfos' ribs. It was fortunate that Epona was highly attuned to her rider that she slowed down and turned outwards, allowing Link to wrestle the sword free, than keep on pounding ahead which, with Link's arrested motion, would have yanked him off her, leaving him without the one defence of mobility.

Sometimes Link believed Epona was smarter than the usual Hylian. Now was one case, when she decisively chose to run back into the throng of the dead, relying on Link's impulse to swing his sword at anything labelled the enemy. His sword sinking deep into a cranium, Link could only blink and stare at the fragmenting body as Epona galloped him away from the swarming blades.

She could never have learnt such training in a farm, yet the only place she would have gained enough experience to be a warhorse in all rights but size would be from the future and Termina. Termina alone wouldn't have instilled the necessary discipline needed – although Link could never hide his amazement at the courage she expressed when running through a pack of Bombchus – so that would mean some parts of the horrors from the future remained in her.

Who knows? Perhaps animals are more sensitive to disturbances in Time and Nature. All Link knew was that he wasn't killing Stalfos fast enough.

Navi had ordered the men to form four rings, each of ten riders each: the inner ring would ride in a clockwise motion around the grouped caravans in case any Stalfos got that close; the second outer ring rode in a counter clockwise spiral so that they both together created a fairly solid barrier against any attacker who was foolish enough to simply run straight. The other two rings were to interweave with each other, alternating from resting within the protective confines between the third and inner ring and smashing out at the Stalfos. Her orders were that you aim for a hit, not a kill. Hit and run.

This seemed a bit complicated to Link, but at least it was holding the Stalfos army at bay. Swords would crack shin bones, spears would rivet past the shields. Wielding his sword with two arms now, Link charged forward, locking his elbows to let the blade's tip skim across the skeletons to his flank.

Hovering near the edge of the caravans' maps, it was not too hard for two Stalfos to jump to Epona's immediate front, where Link would not have been able to reach and Epona would not have been able to dodge. Hidden by the darkness beyond, both horse and rider was surprised by the sudden attack. Jaws open in a silent snarl their blades gleamed in the descending arc, one Stalfos hunting chiefly for Epona's neck, where the weighted metal would have splintered through the spine and cave through the chest cavity. The other held the sword in a locked position, darkly anticipating Link's momentum to throw his body against the serrated edge.

That event did not come to pass, a heavy spear skewering both Stalfos where they stood. While their positions were excellent to take on Link alone, they forgot he was not alone. Waving a casual salute to Link the guard quickly retreated back into the defensive revolutions before Epona rode him down, leaving Link still charging forth, sword outstretched and shearing through shield and wrist alike.

This simply could not last, Link knew: he was lucky that the guard had noticed his plight soon enough to fix it, but luck will run out as exhaustion built higher. Curving back towards the caravan to snatch a kerosene lamp, from what he could see the entire field was filled with Stalfos, more numerous than the Stalchids of days old...

... But clearly sharing the same weakness. Why else would someone bother to make it night, unless the skeletons could not survive through the penetrating light of day? That the group could not see beyond the sheltering glow of the lamps may have been a tactical reason why, but if that was the case there were enough hills and crests that the enemy need only wait for a strategically more viable position before launching the attack.

Which brought to question: why now? Link stared keenly into the eyes of the Stalfos his sword was plunged through, as if the malignant glare back would have given him the answers needed. Why bother to make it night now, when whichever sorcerer could simply wait for the six hours of remaining daylight to fade away, and the caravan line move into the tactical position for attack?

As if hunting for answers Link ploughed from skeleton to skeleton, holding his gaze with theirs for the few moments before the construct collapsed. The dark mirrors of their souls revealed no answers however, and under the continuous onslaught Link had to ignore that question for more pressing matters.

The men were tiring. The horses, under Navi's rule of constant motion, were tiring even faster. Link did not know how long this imported night would last, but he expected that the last man standing would tire within another hour of the thick fighting and riding. What Link needed to do was remove that thick veil surrounding him, to break that barrier against magic so as to restore Nature's normal balance.

"Navi!" He called out when riding back to the caravan, opening the glass casing of his lantern and propping it on a spear held in place by his leg and Epona's side, "can you sense any large body of magic? Can you see anything that doesn't look like any of these Stalfos?"

Despite what some myths stated, you had to be nearby to cast your magic, you had to be able to see where you're affecting. Standing on Death Mountain won't let you strike your enemies on Lake Hylia, unless you could see them. Ganondorf managed his large reign by imposing magically linked spies with him, so he could see everything within his realm. Shikaku needed to be nearby to create a Dark Link. So for someone to pull over the heavy smog night and summon the Stalfos, he or she had to be close.

"Magic? This entire place appears magic-dead! The anti-magic present in all undead means that I can't see anything magical!" Navi shouted back, hovering two metres above the caravans to provide more illumination and keep the teamsters from breaking and fleeing. "But of anything that doesn't look like these guys, there's a really, really large one standing further back!"

That was enough for Link. Pulling out his bow, he nudged Epona into a trot that direction, using the open flame of the lamp to create revised fire arrows. "Tell the men to charge there then! We're not going to last like this!"

He ignored Navi's protests of leaving the caravans undefended, choosing to empty out his supply of arrows to file a line where Navi pointed. She may have disagreed with Link, but he could see the other defenders open out from the defensive ring to create a flying wedge, horses stampeding to charge in bulk against the wall of Stalfos in the way. Of the thirty one that still stood, twenty of them reformed to create the charging triangle, the rest staying behind to protect the caravans.

Unhooking the lantern, Link used the spear as a sharp and pointy cudgel more than a real spear, choosing to swing its bladed end around and hammer at the Stalfos nearby as Epona sprinted to the front of the triangular attack. If Link noticed, he would have realised the resemblance between his actions and the gentleman's sport of polo, although this time aiming for skulls instead of balls. The shape of the triangle meant that each soldier only needed to worry fighting opponents from one side, their blades flashing in decapitating motions to maintain the momentum rush forward. The slope down helped their charge, the gentle hill making the soldiers an avalanche of steel and flesh.

Soon enough they got close enough for the lantern's light to shine upon the large Stalfos. It wasn't even a Stalfos at that – spine bent peculiarly, with the shoulders and ribs shifted to make space for an extra pair of arms. The weight of all its frontal appendages was balanced with a jagged tail, each bone section being the size of a man's forearm. Towering at twice the size the normal Stalfos, the lower arms were armed with enormous machetes that stretched to reach the ground, the upper arms gripping a giant bow made of bones. Upon reaching it, the surrounding Stalfos appeared to have stopped, creating a loose ring of undead spectators.

If Link knew what a Gigas was, he would have identified the dead behemoth as an infernally resurrected being. The other Stalfos gave it space, probably due to the violent lashings of its lower arms rending anything nearby into a pile of dissipating smoke. The men stopped suddenly, horses paralysed by the fear exuded by the being. Distorted cheekbones twisting nastily, it snapped out an oversized arrow and shot one of the leading men, spearing through his plated armour and horse.

"By Din, what the hell is that?" One of the men cried, kicking his horse free from the triangular formation in an attempt to flank the thing. That proved his downfall, another arrow flying free, impaling him deeply and knocking him off his horse. The lower arms trembled, machetes dancing against the ground in cruel invitation.

"Scatter! Surround it!" Another man cried, swinging his sword around to make the men around him spread apart. Incited by this action the soldiers started spreading out, some releasing volleys of their own arrows ineffectually.

Epona exhaled a ragged breath as she lurched into motion, slowly veering in to bring Link into striking distance. A machete flailed out, the dull edges only meaning that a strike would not cut cleanly, but rather mangle and wreck before running through. Link was lucky when Epona dropped out of range, letting the blade whistle past Link's shoulder. The man behind him proved not so lucky – a surprised sigh was all he managed as the edge shredded through his chest.

With the blade now behind him Link pressed Epona back towards the behemoth, toes clenching tightly to the stirrups as he released the spear as a javelin. Its weight proved enough to penetrate through bone, sticking through one of the shoulder joints to lock the bow arm ineffective. The skeleton groaned in a roar of anger, turning around to club Link with its other machete.

Its tail proved as dangerous as its arms, spindly spikes flashing out to shatter the legs of the opportunistic riders' horses. Men soon learnt that it was just as deadly to approach it from behind, yet many were too tired to throw their spears with sufficient strength to damage the being: instead they rode on, cautiously clinging out of range and hoping for a moment to dart in and strike with their swords.

They however forgot one vital fact: given its numerous limbs, it was easy forget that a set of legs was one of them. Suddenly springing forth a clawed heel splintered a surprised soldier's breastplate, blades now in reach to strike at another soldier.

Some took that as an opportunity to ride in and hack away at its legs, its arms extended too far forward to withdraw them in time and the tail sticking up for it to maintain balance. To their dismay their swords were blunted by the unfriendly collisions with bone and shields earlier on, and they only managed to create small chips, mere whittles, before needing to run away and avoid the stabbing giant blade.

"What demon is this?" one man cried, the sword he threw desperately arcing through the air and simply bouncing off its jaw, "it cannot be harmed! It cannot be killed!"

"Then shut up and run!" replied Navi's voice sharply. Everyone turned around to be presented with the sight of a caravan charging down the hill, teamsters rapidly working to free the horses before the caravan struck the skeletal beast. Panicking some chose to hack away at the reigns than undo the buckles, the smoke and sparkles emitted from the caravan furthering their haste.

The Gigas Stalfos noticed the rapidly approaching caravan, and given how everyone else was ploughing through the still Stalfos lines to get far away it was the only target it could see. Snarling nastily it watched the teamsters finally free the six horses, riding on them bare-backed in desperate retreat. Embers burnt through the fabric meant to protect the contents from wind and rain, and with the decreased air resistance the caravan ran all the much faster.

Perhaps the being believed there was some suicidal rider inside, as it chose to swing out with both arms to crush the incoming vehicle. It probably did not expect the thing to explode, washes of fire and compressed air raking across its body and the surrounding ground. Bits of burning wood struck like fiery splinters, embedding deep into its structure. The main effect was the pieces of metal, improvised projectiles by the force of the explosion, flying in a destructive radius to shear through anything they passed. Some had already melted from the growing heat of the conflagration, its trajectory through the air reshaping it into crude blades before it cooled and sunk deep into the surrounding area.

The Stalfos, standing still as they were, received the spray of heated steel, bodies breaking apart under the torrent of fire and metal. They acted as much thanked barriers for the fleeing men, who were now grateful that the usual Stalfos height meant that they were protected from the barrage. With figures over ten metres away being demolished from the onslaught, when the smoke cleared out it could be seen that the main target was destroyed, the fragmented bones lying among the ravenous ash and embers.

Immediately the heavy veil cleared. Snapping out his ocarina Link resumed his attempts at the Sun Song before the Stalfos ranks marched into motion. As the sky went awash in the colours of sunrise many of the skeletons stood still, staring dumbly upwards, and as the sun ascended to its intended position their bones evaporated away, leaving the field littered with cracked shields and rusted swords.

"What in blazes was that?" Link asked Navi, hopping off Epona and staggering back towards the remaining three caravans. As his eyes passed the remaining guards he could tell that at least half the numbers that started out perished.

"That," Navi replied grimly, "was our caravan loaded with all our kerosene, naphtha, gunpowder, nails, hammers and knives." Gesturing at the remaining ones, she added, "These are our caravans with the essentials: medical equipment, emergency rations, building material, plus those two things. The Kakariko villagers will have to find a different way to light their lamps and cut their food."

As they reorganised, the results of battle was pretty grim: of the forty guards, fourteen were still alive, although six of them were too injured to fight again. The six teamsters and their horses didn't manage to escape fast enough, and their horses had to be put down whilst some of the first aid kits were plundered to help with the men's wounds. Altogether twenty six men died, eighteen severely injured, thirty two horses dead and an entire caravan and supplies lost.

Yet for all their injuries and the remaining horses' exhaustion they pressed on faster than before: now there were no setbacks, since they could not afford any. Link's throat dried from the effort, but he kept playing the Sun's Song to postpone night as long as he could. Navi, hoarse from all that yelling, rested subdued within his cap. By the time they reached Kakariko Village, a day earlier than expected, the horses were half dead from exhaustion, the men sick and half mad from fear, paranoia and fatigue.

People noticed that many items on the list hadn't arrived, but they were smart enough not to voice complaint: despite their wearied states, the remaining soldiers appeared ready enough to kill anyone who didn't appreciate the hell they went through. Impa's house was transformed into a makeshift clinic as all the doctors were pooled together to help the wounded.

"That's what Kakariko Village lacks," Link muttered as he dragged the crate with the two swords up the stairs, "a hospital. They have everything else, watch tower included, but not a hospital. At least, not one that deals with Non-Sheikah patients. Stupid tunnels."

Epona was willing to rest inside a stable outside Lon Lon Ranch, an indication of how tired she was. Link himself could not rest – upon dragging the two swords out of the caravan, he had to carry it up to the guardhouse near Death Mountain Trail. Tomorrow he had work to do, but today he had to help supervise the loading of the items.

Time travelled like a dream: one moment Link was talking to the carpenter boss, pointing vaguely at where improved constructs should be made, and then he'd slip out of consciousness to wake and find himself in the Sheikah Caverns, wandering aimlessly in search for Malik. The periods in between random lapses – talking to Anju, spearing a piece of steak with his fork, setting Navi to rest on the bedside – were filled with tired white, a screen of weariness leaving his mind watching the border of nirvana.

He had no real notice of what he was doing, mind returning once to see himself resting inside a hot bath, another time in the middle of his speech for the fallen soldiers in the graveyard, and the sky, from the glimpses his exhausted mind got of it, seemed stuck in perpetual twilight. His mind returned once to see himself bear hug a Tektite to kill it, but before he could contemplate what he was doing on the Trail he faded out again, noticing the stars creeping into vision.

How long was time spent like this? Link didn't know, for under this strange spell he worked, talked and acted like a man tired, but thinking, where he really was a boy walking, yet asleep. In these brief moments of waking he saw Darunia, Medigoron and the view of Dodongo Cavern. At some point he donned the Fire Tunic and drifted through the Fire Temple, unarmed, unthinking.

Yet with each moment of waking he could hear a small whisper, one that quickly faded out behind the sounds of the surroundings, but always returning whenever he woke again. It was a man's voice – or was it female? – one that spoke warmly, soothingly, seductively. He woke one time to see his hand gripping a hammer, pounding away at a presently formless bar of steel, to sleep again and rouse to see the toppled jars containing Volvagia's fire. Perhaps in this dream state he visited the ancient dragon and collected more, for the last time he remembered he used them all.

The whispers were the only constants of this dream, the same voice speaking in the same echo-ey way, trying to press in the same message.

_You hate this... deserve better..._

_Free yourself, brother, unleash... rouse the anger, the hatred..._

_Accept... tired, aren't you? ... rest in the warmth... hate..._

_This... you know it... fury..._

_Brother of the Six... awaken, Fury._

_AWAKEN._

A pain in his left arm broke him out of trance dream, and blinking he looked at the scalded skin, slowly raising his head to stare forward. His gaze was blank, but soon focussed on the rod of metal still glowing with the heat from the forge.

No, not a rod... a sword. The red glow wasn't coming from any physical heat, but from a burning malice, one so derisive of life it proved enough to burn its wielder.

He had moments to stare at it in disbelief, before the comforting – no! it must be dispelled, this sleep! – white blaze of warmth – not warm, it's not like living warmth! – enveloped him again – fight it off, fight it off!

"Someone," Link managed to utter out, "is... controlling..."

And he fell back into his stretch between sleep and awakening, never reaching the depth of sleep to meet Farore, never close enough to the border consciousness to wrestle personal control.

This... this wasn't nirvana. This was...

­_-S-_

A/N: Wahoo! Finished! Finally! My apologies to those who waited so long (JML: I haven't updated in four months? Are you sure?) But eventually, I found my USB stick. Praise the Heavens. I found that I preferred this version more though, so kept on writing on this one.

Two battle scenes in one chapter, not bad, eh? Now while I feel good about myself (stopped procrastinating) feel free to flower me with praise and ungodly amounts of respect. Then again, by the time I read it I would have fallen back into my sullen mood of Sundays hates me, so it'll be better if you deliver you guys deliver your usual critiques, comments, and assortments of author worship.

Read John Irving. Read Tim O'Brien – that's where I got inspiration for the dream state from. And a chapter devotion to whoever that guesses rightly what 'This was...' was like. Now before I familiarise myself with the world of fanfiction again (damn you homework), may I release a plea for all those who read this far (if you ever read the author's notes... I rarely do) to deliver the most well-rounded criticism they can. I fear I have rusted badly. Seriously badly, and I need someone who won't pull the punches to get me back in shape. Cheers.

Maybe the next chapter won't take so long (I'm not letting my USB fall out of sight again), maybe not. Until then, thanks for your tireless patience, and a massive thanks to my reviewers: just what I need, someone complimenting my work in the midst of my stupors to kick me back into action. I write for myself – it's an enjoyable activity, and productive – but mainly for you guys, and those responses, no matter how small, remind me that someone still enjoys my work.

Before I get too sentimental, read Nathaniel Hawthorne too, if you can understand 17th Century English. The Scarlet Letter, is as boring as heck, but I love it nonetheless.


	34. Wind

A/N: Recently read one of David Edding's newer publications. Was really disappointed in it too: I think his wife is interfering a tad too much.

Oh yes, before I forget: to **windchaser90**, only person to mention what 'this was...' ended with. Good thing my long time reviewer (so nice to know I can inspire such faithfulness) got it right. Because of the proper guess and steadfast appreciation, this chapter's dedicated to you, old friend.

Warning: abstract chapter. Don't write when you're sick. I hate being sick.

Chapter 32: Wind

"Away," Link muttered, voice cracked, "we go." As a haphazard consideration, he added, "Away."

That was the longest string of words Navi heard him say since four days ago, when he made the decision to leave Kakariko Village immediately, his already impressive retinue of swords increased by one. There was no direction to his proclamation, just saddling Epona and leaving. No goodbyes, no rations, no reasons. Just go.

Since he carried nothing but the dwindling amounts of preserved food from previous journeys, Navi was very worried for his health. He didn't spend much time thinking on it though, or even eating – the tired glazed look stretched across his eyes, hardly blinking, hardly seeing – and Navi stayed up once to watch closely: Link hardly slept at all. In the four days since leaving, he slept for a total of three hours.

Yesterday Link suddenly swerved from his direction west, sentience returning to his eyes as he directed Epona south instead. "Away," he explained, eyes darting half dreading and half longingly at the quickly fading form of LonLon Ranch, "away."

"I could do with a better explanation," Navi grumbled then, kicking his ear and using irritation to cover her worry, "the word 'away' doesn't leave me with much."

Link turned his head slowly, trying to fix his dancing eyes onto her form. It frightened her how those globes of river blue flickered from one side to another, slowing down to a shivering quiver, and dilated rapidly. "Poisoned," he whispered hoarsely, eyes sharpening to drive in the tiredness of his situation into Navi's form, before blanking. He spoke no words after that.

Right now Navi didn't feel safe resting in Link's cap, and floated a foot away watching his face closely. From the lack of nutrition it was thinning, jawbones growing more prominent as the eye bags cast their shadows further. Cracked from the lack of moisture, his lips were always parted to give way for the quiet wheezing, as if it was an effort to keep on breathing. While blessed with fair and pale skin, the spreading pallor made the black of his irises ever larger. At least when his eyes were distant, seeing into a future he did not like, they did not twirl in a frenzy of madness and fear.

Epona sensed his growing ill too, and constantly flicked her head in askance at Link. Change direction? Move a little bit left for the broken stump? Stop for a drink of water? Follow the river? But no, Link would not notice her questioning brays, leaving it up to her to navigate them south. Perhaps as an act to get his attention, Epona suddenly stopped, pausing near a patch of fresh grass to nibble on, but ears flicked to listen to Link's response.

It took a while for Link to realise the sudden loss of motion, and it was only when Navi floated past his eyes, flashed in a dazzling display of neon pink and vibrant purple and swore a lungful of obscenities into his ear before boxing them literally. Slowly blinking, he raised his head to ponder on the sky, before gracelessly falling off Epona.

"Rest here," he groaned, pulling the sheathed sword out from underneath him, "it is getting dark."

"Well about time you noticed you stupid lout," Navi huffed, floating over, "It's night-time already and the phrase 'it is getting dark' would've been better placed a few hours ago."

Link didn't deign to respond, using her light to make a quick stock of his equipment. His eyes hardened – angrily? – at the new sword, but soon he piled them all together at the base of the nearby tree and shuffled off for firewood.

The fire was quickly built, and at Navi's goading Link managed to force some dried fruits down. The river provided some fish for Link to catch, although given his distant-mindedness they were caught mostly by Navi diving under, waiting for a fish to approach and then stunning it with a dose of electricity. She had to yell at Link to pick the damned things up before they floated away, and yell even more for him to cook them.

"You say you're poisoned?" Navi shouted at him as he watched the fish roast blankly, "well, do something about it then! I didn't see anyone drop anything into your food or drink, but if you're so insistent that you are then go see a blinking doctor! They're there for a reason, you know! Look at you: wasting away, moving off to Goddess-knows-where with nothing at all. If there's a sickness, it's right in your head!"

Link was silent; Navi expected that. Eyes focussing for a moment he turned the stick to let a different part of the fishes be exposed to the flames before letting his arm return limply. Inhaling loudly, Navi continued her rant – it seemed the only way to extract some life from Link.

"If I was one of those ancient surgeons, I'd punch a gaping big hole in your skull to take a peek at your brains. You'd certainly deserve that, you inconsiderate lump of grapefruit! Can you see what I see, when I see you? From the great and almighty Hero of Time, saviour of people, slapping Evil silly with a sacred sword, to a lifeless dolt that needs to be told to eat!" Lowering her voice for the moment, she added with less ruthlessness but greater disappointment, "Your fishes are overcooked now, moron. Eat it before they're a pile of ash and my efforts are wasted."

Link shifted. "Not the mind," he whispered, taking the stick out and examining the fish's smoking carcass, "magic. It wasn't a curtain, not a veil, but a toxin." Clenching his eyelids tightly, he sighed. "They poisoned my magic. Maybe you're right; they poisoned my mind."

Navi's glow sputtered in alarm, returning to usual vibrancy and strength after a while. "What do you mean? What are you talking about?"

Link chuckled hollowly, absently tearing at his food with his teeth. His eyes slowly glazed, but immediately sharpened angrily before he swallowed. "I remember you telling me this: the dead can't cast spells, as the little magic they have is used to stay assembled. Something else, someone else, cast the veil."

There was not much Navi could say to that. Sitting beside the fire, she waited in silence for him to continue.

"Hyrule... too much magic. I must purify myself. I must purge the poison. The surrounding magic is interfering, however." Raising his head, he brushed the few strands of hair away from his eyes and stared for a long time at the moon. "Did you know," his voice rolled slowly, "I could not cast Din's Fire in Termina? No Din's Fire, no Farore's Wind, and no Nayru's Love." He lowered his gaze back to the fire, and resumed chewing. "Lower magic there. It is safe."

The rest of the night was spent with Link's mind drifting away, Navi there to make sure he finished eating his rare meal and to usher him to sleep. Despite his mind's inattentiveness to the body's requirements, or perhaps because of it, sleep struck him like a hammer blow, the moment he rested against the tree base being the moment his eyelids drooped shut. As a fey folk Navi did not need as much rest as Link did, and with meticulous care kept the fire going, letting its glowing warmth cast aside the otherwise cold that would have interfered with Link's slumber.

Day arose, and so did he. And the life of blank death resumed, the silence, the worry, and the travel.

_-In the night, I dream of fire...-_

Forward. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Only two feet? A frown. Nonetheless, forward.

I go, I rasp, away. It is too strong, wrong battlefield. Left foot, right foot, left, right. Look forward. Eyes, open, and look forward.

The fog clears. A temporary respite – it is still the wrong battlefield. The magic is too thick, oppressing, crushing, strangling. Rationale cannot breathe; only away. Glimpse down: only two feet. Keep them going. Mind the steps.

Rationale breathes: there is a faster way. Do not walk. Ride. The fog returns, but I send one piercing demand: find Epona, and ride. Left, right, left, right, turn around. Horse stables. The fog must wait. The world must wait. The Goddesses, Her demand, the Second Seal, they must wait.

Until I return. Until I am safe. Fog, haze, mist, smog.

I cannot see. Eyes, open, unseeing. Left foot, right foot.

Until I am safe. Epona, ride. Four feet must be twice as fast as two.

The fairy. Cannot leave the fairy. Cannot leave the sword. Cannot leave this country...

No! I leave. Take the sword, take the fairy, take the horse. I leave.

_-A fire black as pitch, a fire that consumes all...-_

Wind touches. Wind strokes. Wind chases. Breath calls to me. Rationale cannot breathe. Look forward, keep moving. Always moving, forward.

Green. Wind strokes through the green, through the grass, through the trees. Ah, a field. Green chases the wind, and calls to me. Rest, let the wind chase the demons away. Rest, you cannot hold up much longer.

Eyes close. Mind rests. The fog is thick with green.

But it is a different green. Not the green of life, not the green of home. The green of poison, of magic, of death, of madness, of rage and swords and blood and monsters. It breathes, and its breath poisons me. Its breath calls to me. Which wind do you listen to? Will you listen to mine, the messenger of tomorrow, of sorrow? Will you listen to theirs, the chaser, the liar?

Can you tell the difference?

No. Mind cannot rest. Rest will wait. Must wait. Wrong battleground – I am losing. I will hold up, and rally, and fight where I will win. Not here.

Rest must wait. Now forward.

The fog sets in. It strangles me. I will not rest.

_-And only one can stoke this fire without injury, one darker than death itself...-_

Voice, voice. Speech. Words. Not sounds, a voice. Forward? No, not forward.

Why am I not moving forward? Frown. Ah, feet are not moving. A swing – they are in stirrups. Not forward. Epona?

Clear eyes, sight. Look forward. Not green, but rapid purple and pink and blue. Where? Oh, the fairy. She speaks, her voice. My ears roar – the fog speaks with its infectious screams, its cacophony of silence.

Yet now it is quiet, a mute buzz. The land is dry. The mind is tired. The body is tired. A glance – the horse is tired too. Rest then.

The ground is cool. Grass brushes against my cheek; fallen, I see. My lips move. I can speak? But I cannot hear. The fairy – my fairy, Navi – her lips move too. Her face is angry.

Lies. Her face is worried.

My face lies. I am worried too. I am tired, I am sick, I am weary, I am losing, and I have fallen. Better the grass. A crack of sound – river, there is a river. My fairy speaks. Fish.

Look around. It is dark. Fire – I built a fire? When? Eating, what? I do not understand. Irrationale laughs: when have you ever understood? Rationale breathes; look around, and see. You are not clear yet, look.

The sword. The swords. They are still there. I hate them, loathe them, despise them. I made them. Trickery, I did not mean to make them. A Second Seal, I meant to make that.

Contemplate. Do we need a Second Seal? It can wait. It will wait. These swords must be destroyed. How?

That can wait too. First, the fog. Kill the fog, kill the green. Then kill the swords.

Ah, they might kill me. I am losing.

Rest.

_-A god greater than the three Goddesses, he laughs...-_

Burns, it burns. It still glows hot. I have forged it. It burns.

It is angry. It is Angry. It is Fury. Red, it glows red. From heat? No, that is not heat. From a fire, a blacker fire than the forge.

The fog laughs, gleeful, successful. A dead laugh, but a living one.

Eyes widen. A living one. The Triforce burns as badly as the sword does. Purifying? Why do I need to be purified?

I am poisoned. The fog. The sword. The swords – there are two more, I just made the third. My mind retreats. Rationale rises for a gasping breath. How many Mistakes will I make?

Kill the dead, the fog croons, and laughs. Kill the dead, for you will make many more! Kill the dead, and kill the living! Now fight me, the formless, and find that you cannot win!

No, I cannot win. Not here. The sword glows, in malice, in joy? It can wait. It is waiting; I have more to do.

I cannot win. Away. I must go. Away.

The Triforce burns ever fiercer. My hand burns. My throat burns. My mind...

I am burning. I am drowning. I cannot see. I go away.

_-He rules a race mightier in arms than ours, and he laughs because they come...-_

Forward. No left, no right, but moving forward. Contemplation: how does a horse move? Left and left, right and right? Left and right, right and left?

What am I thinking? Forward matters. Away, and forward. Look ahead, and see the green. Feel the wind. Hear the grass. See what you fight for. See what you leave for.

See a ranch. Feel the sun. Hear a song. I know this place. I know this song.

Friend. Malon. She is nearby. My body shifts. The sun is warm.

A home, not at home. The ranch. I will be welcomed. Her words. I will always be welcomed.

Can I go?

No. This is what I fight for. This is what I leave for. I am losing. I am sick. I am... unsafe.

I cannot go. Not to the ranch. Not to the song. Not until I am safe. Not with the swords. I must go. Away.

My lips move. Away. Protect. That commands sends strength back into my arms. Epona, turn. South. To the Lost Woods.

To the portals. To somewhere... away.

I miss home already. I miss myself. Strength fails me, and the fog looms ever larger. The sun is cold now. Cold, and dark. I cannot see.

Hah, not the first time. Light. Fairy. Navi speaks to me. I cannot hear. I can only move forward. Away, and now south.

The swords laugh. The fog laughs. I am losing.

But not for long. South. Away. Not Hyrule, elsewhere.

­_-They come, to conquer and to win. They are mocking, sending expeditionary forces...-_

Steps. Left foot, right foot. Down the steps. Death Mountain: beware. My hand burns.

Oh, the sword. Forgot about that. Turn, up the steps. Left, right. The air is thick with fog. Is it night? Is it morning? I cannot see. The fog is thick with poison. I breathe the haze. The poison is thick with madness.

I am not mad. Not now, not yet. Left foot. Ah, I see the sword. Through the fog, it glows red. It glows purple. It glows black. It glows, it laughs, it snarls. I can hear it. A roar of water, falling to a black abyss. It is angry. It hates me, yet I serve it.

It knows. I created it. I created sentience. I cannot leave it behind.

Dangerous. Like me. We are dangerous. Right foot. Left hand. The Triforce burns. The fog lifts, and I can see beneath it.

Rationale breathes. Not left hand then, use your right. Then leave quick. While you can see, depart. Fast. You must go away, far, far away. Take the sword and go. In your state, you will lose. If you lose, they will win.

They must not win. You must not lose. So go. Away.

Ah, my right hand burns too. A golden light; left hand? Never mind, no distractions. Ignore the pain, just go. I go.

_-Not to conquer, not yet. To see, to play, to test our mettle. And He mocks me, in my dreams...-_

Trees. Navi's lips move. Can I hear her? Yes, for I can see her.

What does she say?

"...the Lost Woods... happy now?...what do you want...where do you want...go?" Not all the words, but enough. She sounds irritated. She looks afraid.

Trees. Ah, trees: we've reached the Lost Woods. Epona refuses to go further in. I understand. Part of me doesn't want to cross the border between order and chaos, field and woods, knowing and lost. Part of me knows I've already crossed it.

All of me says go. Away.

My lips move. My ears crack – a voice from above? No, my voice. I can speak?

Fancy that. No! No distractions. Listen, and obey! The fog is poisonous. Concentrate, fool, concentrate!

"Navi, remove the fey protection. No teleporting back to the exit: we go where I follow." Navi is angry. She calls me mad. Am I mad? Does a madman admit he's mad? I am... resolute. I repeat my order. I am mad... not now, not yet.

"...do it your way... happy now?... don't blame me... Stalfos... follow what?"

This time, I wrestle total control. I cannot fade here, not in the Lost Woods. My strength returns, the fog flees. I take all the items I need from Epona – swords and all. The fog presses on my mind, it wishes to return. I bar it out. My mind is heavy.

I inhale. "The air is dry. We follow the wind, to wherever it takes me." Moist finger, point me... left it is. A farewell pat to Epona, and I enter and turn left.

Navi frowns. Her glow darkens as she restrains her natural instincts to protect me from the chaotic magic meant to mislead me. "Follow the wind? What about Termina?"

Termina... it can wait. I suck my finger again... the wind blows right now. Wow, this method works! Hah, I am mad.

The mind is heavy. The fog waits, bitter, angry. And the swords call in raucous symphony. You are mad, you are mad, you are mad...

_-In my dreams, he shows me six people. Six people, and six swords. Three of these, I know...-_

Fire, fire, warmth of fire. I'd enjoy you if things weren't dire. Navi thinks I'm asleep. She tends to the fire, to keep me warm.

Bless her and her kind heart. There are bonds no evil can break, and a friendship of a fairy is nigh indestructible. I love Navi.

But to more important matters: I cannot sleep. I cannot rest, for then the dreams come. The fog has lifted – most strange, but I'm not pushing my luck. I can think clearly now, no contemplation of my two feet, no distractions. Now think.

The swords pulse softly, oppressed but curiously ecstatic. Usually they are more active, more vicious. When they act strange, I must keep my guard up. But my guard is so weary, so tired... it will have to wait a while longer.

So let me consider: magic feeds the fog. The magic around me, and my magic especially. Time to play it safe: no tooting on the ocarina, or magic arrows, or one of my myriad of mana burning spells. That's how he, or it, or whatever it is, cast this damned poison on me. I was a fool to believe that the veil will break once that giant abomination was destroyed. That veil was a trap, and I fell for it. Sheesh, Navi says that I never think things through. I guess she was right this time.

This tree feels familiar. What am I doing, thinking about trees? But no really, there is something about it that rings with my memory. Maybe the fog is dabbling with my memory too, I cannot say – it already twists with my thoughts the rest of the time. Maybe I can't sense the fog and its presence anymore. That would be bad, for an enemy you cannot see is not an enemy you want to fight. Not that I'm winning, so far.

That's it! I fought Shikaku here, him with his weird pendant! I knew this place was familiar. So that's why the fog has receded: his pendant has drained this patch of land of magic, so there's nothing for it to feed on. Well, fight fire with fire. Who knew some good would come out of that?

Well, he's not the only demon I fought. Let's see... Shukaku was a real pain, him with his nearly endless army attacking the Gerudo Fortress. How did I defeat him? Wait, I didn't. Malik drained on my magic, like how Reza does. I wonder how they do that; Farore hasn't explained that part to me clearly. Divine intervention, I'm guessing.

Shakaku is still out there, although he's been peculiarly quiet since that massive onslaught against Zora Domain. Cocky bastard, it's unlike him to stay down quietly. Although of the three demons he seems the one that would plan the most. I should check on the Zoras at some point – struck with disease, they should hopefully be recovering by now. The most recent bother – aside from that night time assault by all those dead things – is the Steel Ghost, and he's hopefully down for good. Fell off a bloody building.

Maybe there's a pattern to all their attacks? A mass assault to the west, against the Gerudos, mass assault to the east, against the Zoras, mass assault to the north, against the Hylians, leaving a mass assault to the south, against the...

Oh, bugger. First Dark Copies, then more Dark Copies, then a lot of dead things... what would they throw against the Kokiri?

Navi says I never think things through. There's a reason why I don't: what I figure out just scares me.

_-The other three swords, I will soon know. And the six people, they will fight me, and serve me...-_

The air is dry. I follow the wind. My mind is heavy. My legs are heavy. My hand still burns. My throat still burns.

Exhale. As soon as I find a freshwater source, I'll quench my thirst. In the meantime, follow the wind.

The magic is strong here, lashing violently against me. The world spins in view: nothing to do with the fog, which presses strong, fed with the chaotic magic, just the powers that govern the Lost Woods. Navi is apprehensive, but even if sight fails me, the wind only blows one way.

Now right, now left, left again, and right... The air is dry. The wind grows. I am getting closer to a real portal, for now I smell something like a sea breeze. This wind comes from elsewhere.

Wearing all this armoury weighs on me. My body is heavy. My mind is heavy. The fog presses against my mental barriers; aided by the proximity those three swords have to my heart. I must fight on, although I am losing. The fog grows strong. I am losing.

Navi sees the burdens I carry. She speaks to me, although my hearing has left me. I am desperate, I must carry on. The wind grows strong. Follow the wind. Chase it, never let it go, for it will bear me free, into the world with the sea breeze.

Sea, see, I cannot see. Eyes open, but unseeing. The fog rolls in, thick and powerful. The swords hum in their malignant tones, blinding hearing and muting sight. Thick saliva; fingers. I can still feel – I break into a run. I can feel Navi's urgency, as she can feel mine. Fairy bond – she leads me.

The wind is dying – no! Not this direction! Turn, fool, turn! There! Keep going! Fall; scraped knees, jangled steel. I do not know what has fallen. Keep running away, to the wind. Chase the wind. I cannot feel. Where is the wind?

My legs are heavy. My mind is heavy, and losing. I am losing. Take a direction then; left! Go there, and hurry! Away, away, away!

_-And in turn I will serve the Black King, to deliver this country into his fires...-_

I cannot hear.

I cannot see.

I cannot feel.

I... cannot... think...

I am... losing...

My fairy... guides me... to the wind...

_-Where he will devour all, and become the greatest God of existence, and of death.-_

Black. Quiet. Nothing. A gentle whisper against the skin.

What? My eyes open, seeing. Blue, a great savannah of blue... an ocean, a sky. No more tall trees and moss filled grounds.

I am on the sand. My Navi calls to me, berating, worried, frightened, relieved. The fog rolls away, the magic is too weak here.

I was losing. Now, I am winning. I can feel, see, and hear. Strength fills me.

A person approaches. I look back; the portal is gone. Hyrule, for the time being, is gone. I am now in this country of wind, of sea breeze, of recuperation. Where I will grow strong, and defeat this fog, and obtain power to break the dreams.

The fog breaks. I am free. I am winning.

_-S-_

There was not much to Link's speech, only groans and half made words. At least this time his eyes were clear, crystalline pools of blue that reflected the sea with equal intensity. Through the bond they shared Navi knew he felt confident, no longer that jumble of nothing and everything. Maybe his declared poison is going away.

Wiping the traces of sweat away from her forehead, Navi settled down on his still muttering form. It was a sheer stroke of luck that he managed to find a portal, for she could feel the Lost Woods' magic setting in, ready to devour a next victim. To escape at the last minute, now that was a true miracle. Now that Link is a bit more coherent, maybe he would tell her about his sudden departure of Hyrule.

Navi blinked, staring out at the sea. A strange feeling washed over her, carried by the sea breeze. They left Hyrule. The last time either of them did it, they were separated. Now, they left... but together. Confidence swelling in her heart, she danced a happy jig on Link's cheek, kicking his ears now and then.

"Can you be kinder," Link groaned, finally leaving his position half buried in the sand to sit up, "I've been experiencing a pretty rotten day."

"I can tell that," Navi replied dryly, floating off to kick his shallow cheeks, "you've been experiencing a pretty rotten diet as well. See what happens when you don't listen to me? In the name of duty I yelled, shouted, insulted, bad-faced and ill-named you, calling you things that would make your hair turn green until I went hoarse, but you wouldn't listen. See if I ever insult you again, you insensitive jerk. You better appreciate my expletive cussing." She turned around theatrically with a dramatic puff.

Link paused to consider her words. "Right, will do," he said slowly. Out in the distance, he could see someone approaching. "Now, for the time being, do you know where we are?"

She rolled her eyes, waiting for him to stand up before settling on his shoulder. "You walked through a random portal, for crying out loud. Do you think I know where we are? You have a local over there, ask her!"

He inhaled deeply. Ah, ocean air, good for the throat, good for the soul. As if compensating for his previous days of sullen demeanour, Link felt a high mood of elation, cheerful, successful. "Yes, though I wonder how this exchange will go over. 'Excuse me, which country are we in? And if you don't mind, does this place have a history of suicidal moons?' Hah, I can imagine her reply now."

Dusting off the sand from his tunic, he took a quick stock of his present inventory. Everything important was still there, although he did lose three of his seven knives. Which left him with four, meaning he was still armed to the teeth, and approaching a defenceless lady out nowhere to ask for directions.

The lady in question appeared familiar, bringing up the sensation of déjà vu he felt with the tree a few days earlier on. Her black hair was an indication that this place was definitely not Hyrule, as was the little baby bundled on her back – few mothers brought their children out when they work, and less using such a style of wrapping to keep the child warm and securely in place.

The work in question was collecting seashells, from what Link could gather. A large basket resting against her hip, her free hand was used to pick up any shell without a broken exterior. Sandals ensured that cleaning out the sand from her feet later on would not face the same difficulties as would wearing boots demonstrate, and her trousers were hiked above her knees to protect them from the waves that splashed against her ankles. Stopping her work, she stood a few metres away from Link, looking at him curiously.

"Um, hello," he offered hesitantly, trying to make the large number of blades less prominent on his body. Her eyebrows furrowed in thought, and she said a string of words back.

"Great," Navi sighed, "just your luck to select a country that doesn't share the same language as us." The lady looked upon Navi in wonder, returning her look back to Link with a gaze of... recognition?

Whatever she was saying to Link, he was sure it had nothing to do with the number and variety of weapons he carried around given her upbeat and welcoming tone. Gesturing with her free hand, she beckoned Link to follow her back up along the shore, pointing to the small collection of buildings in the distance.

"Well, I'm lucky enough to pick a friendly country at least," Link said to Navi, "I could have picked one filled with cannibals."

Steel clanking as he followed, the sounds disturbed the baby resting on the lady's back, sending the child into an unhappy gargle as it attempted to twist free of its blanket bindings to see more than the sky above. The lady cooed something in her language at it, and while the baby stopped its wrestling with the sheets, continued warbling disconsolately.

Link could almost understand its unhappiness, for while the sky was beautiful in its infinite blue, the true spectacle rested in the large cliff sides to their left, great vertical valleys of unnatural smoothness and geometry that channelled the winds off to the distance. The shortest one, one where the top sloped down rather than maintained a level path, stood over fifty metres above the sea below, with the tallest standing another fifty higher. They stood as giants, sea-made dazzles of colour, some made with red rock, others with white, more with yellow and a few with black. Rather than startle the eye with the varied assortment, they calmed the sight with their gentle transformations, the bends and shadows creating an undeniably beautiful mix of nature's best works.

The lady, seeing Link's interest in the cliffs, mentioned something as she waved her arm in their direction, also pointing to where he came from. Her voice dropped to a wary tone when she did so, but once she pointed elsewhere, her voice resumed its airy tone.

There was definitely something familiar about her voice, and her language, even though he could not understand a single whit of it. Navi was humming cheerfully to herself, enjoying the splendour of the cliffs.

Sometimes, Link hated that feeling that you were meant to know this. It usually meant that he forgot, and in dungeons where monsters make meals of forgetful travellers, it was a sickening feeling.

As they approached, the small collection of buildings expanded into a decent sized town, and Link could hear the bustle of people moving wagons, horses and goods around the place. Squinting slightly, he could make out a tall monument peaking above the roofs of the buildings, but it was too far for him to extract any great detail from. Navi continued to hum.

The townsfolk clearly did not get many outsiders visiting, as everyone who passed chose to stop to look at Link curiously. Some looked on with a noticeable trace of worry and fear, but Link wasn't surprised; who wouldn't be afraid of a walking steel shop? Granted a fairly short walking steel shop, but Link still had a few more years to grow. Navi continued to hum.

The lady navigated through the alleys, talking jovially with some of the people she passed, and nodding genially to the others, turning back occasionally to make sure Link was following. Link had to admit, the people here liked to build big, many buildings standing up to five floors high. Perhaps it had something to do with the abundance of rock and whatnot to make cement and concrete. Navi stopped humming when the silence of everything around her became very apparent.

Unperturbed, the lady strode forward, still making small chat with the silent observers. Reaching a building, she yelled something. A head poked out of the fourth floor window, she called out again, and it disappeared. Wishing that he could do something about the language barrier, Link started humming himself before Navi kicked him.

Looking at the growing assemblage watching him, Link wondered whether it was standard procedure to have so many soldiers in all the towns. Kakariko Village only had twenty odd, and Castletown having a bit over eighty, given the Royal Palace's close proximity. In this place, half of everyone was a soldier, and what surprised Link was that half the soldiers were female. His musings on the town's population was pushes aside when the building's door opened, and a timid form came out.

A boy of around five years old, black hair mussed beneath the hood he wore. Like many of the non-soldiers he wore only white, the colour making the dirt stains on his trousers and jacket more prominent. In his left hand he clutched something golden, whereupon reaching Link he hesitantly thrust out for them to see.

A golden locket. Link frowned slightly – this was definitely very familiar.

"Hey Link, isn't this the kid we found in the forest, when I found you?" Navi asked, floating closer the child to scrutinise his eyes. "Well I'll be: he is!"

"What are you talking about, 'you found me'?" Link retorted, trying to rack his brains, "I found you fighting off miniature Dark Fairies protecting this kid. Now why was I out there trying to find him, though?"

Satisfied with her check, she floated back to Link's position. "Idiot, you clearly don't use your brain enough if you can't remember. Remember her," she pointed to the lady with the baby strapped to her back, "kid's mom? You brought this tyke back to her, when he got lost in the Woods? Are you remembering any of this at all?"

Scratching his chin, Link passed his gaze from little boy to mother and back. Just to break the scenery, he looked at the tall monument nearby as well: around two thirds up the black spindly frame was a glass orb, cut to look like a diamond, where within a sun was placed within an oval to draw an eye. That too tingled at his memory, although he was positive he never saw that before.

The lady, seeing his interest in the monument, pointed to the glass orb, then swayed her arm to encompass everyone, and pronounced, "Lairok." She said a string of words after that as well, but Link was too busy concentrating on the first word. It sounded way too familiar...

"Hey, I remember!" His face broke out into a grin, and kneeling down he patted the small child on his head. "You're the little boy lost in the Woods, and I brought you back to your mother!" Smiling, he stood up to bow to the woman, indicating his remembrance of both her and her child.

The town and its half population of soldiers didn't seem to ease up from his gesture. Instead, someone barked something at the lady, and the civilians shuffled back as everyone armed with a spear stood forward to create a protective ring. The lady shouted something angrily, but a man – also dressed in civilian white – rushed forward, took her by the shoulders and gently led her back.

"A friendly country you say?" Navi sighed, frowning at the assortment of weapons pointed at them, "Indeed; why couldn't you pick a friendly country? Maybe the people here read the bow as a death threat. Big culture difference."

Solving one of the things bothering his mind, Link was busy solving the other: the sun eye thing inside the glass orb. It was a peculiar sight, a boy armed enough for an army choosing to ignore the weapons aimed at him and the foreign shouts for contemplating a raised ball of glass.

"Hey, if I move my head left a bit, the sun shines through their sun," Link commented to Navi, closing his right eye as well. "So the sun fits in the eye that fits in the jewel that fits in the sky. This monument looks sort of religious, as if they're worshipping the Heavens." Scratching his head, he glanced briefly at the shouting soldiers before looking back. "Eye, jewel, heavens... heavens, jewel, eye... jewel, heavens, eye..."

His eyes widened in realisation. "Lairok! The Jewel of Heaven's Eye! Shakaku mentioned this; he's been here before!" Turning suddenly to a surprised soldier, he asked whether they met a demon with red hair.

"They can't understand you, remember?" Navi shook her head, watching the spears warily as the soldiers took Link's sudden interest in interrogating one of them as an aggressive move. "You'll have to mime it out."

"Fine," Link sighed, taking a step back. Extending his arm above, he said, "Shakaku is this tall," one hand gripping his hair and the other pointing at the building's wall's brick, "Shakaku has red hair," looking around he picked up a few dry leaves off the ground and patted them against shirt, "Shakaku wears clothes like leaves and," standing straight, slowly dropped into a panther attack before standing again and falling into a semblance of a wolf, "Shakaku can change forms."

Link hoped that the buzz floating through the crowd meant that they understood what he was trying to say. The soldiers glanced at each other uncertainly, and the sudden protectiveness mothers had over their children was a good sign. "Why do you keep mentioning his name?" Navi whispered, albeit unnecessarily as no one could understand her, "You make it sound like Hylian grammar is very lacking."

"Because," Link whispered back, "if they don't understand what I'm saying or acting, they will hopefully recognise his name."

There was the sound of something tearing, and an old man, dressed in gray instead of white, approached holding a ripped piece of paper. Judging from its rips at the top two corners, Link assumed it was a poster taken off a notice board. What was most important about it was the person drawn: Shakaku, in human form, wolf form, bull form, and more forms Link didn't even know he could before. Snake, beetle, jaguar, bear, porcupine, an assortment of sketches surrounded the human form. Hands shaking, the old man raised the poster high and declared, "Xyah-Kha-Kyu."

"Well, we got our man. It looks like my work is never done." Rubbing his forehead – he just recovered from magic poisoning, for crying out loud, and still needs to purge it out – he inhaled deeply, and resumed miming. "Time to barter up a free meal." Pointing to himself, Link then pointed to the ground and jogged on the spot, "I am following," point to poster, "Shakaku", point the beach, "from where I came from," point to the horizon, "to wherever he is," pull out one knife, reassure the soldiers that he isn't going to use it, and complete a thrusting motion, "to kill," point to poster again, "Shakaku." Seeing that some people didn't comprehend him, he snatched the poster from the old man's hands, raised it to let all to see, dropped it to the ground and threw his knife so it embedded straight through Shakaku's human form. "Kill Shakaku."

The crowd must have understood that. The old man shouted above the shouting people, yelling something at the soldiers. The lady held onto her son protectively, and shouted something at the old man. Irritated, the old man shouted a single word to the crowd, silencing them, and proceeded to talk to the soldiers in normal volume.

"Well, you told them something, but have you considered that maybe these people work with Shakaku, and that you just said you'll kill one of their big guys?" Navi drawled, noticing that the spears still weren't raised.

"Shakaku said he killed many in Lairok. I don't think people will work with him."

"Changing affiliations, some may work with him to prevent working against him. You know Shakaku – a very scary guy."

Navi's worries were unfounded though, as after more lady-talking-to-old-man-talking-to-soldiers the spears were lifted, the soldiers taking a few steps back to mingle with the crowd again. Nodding to Link, the old man gestured for Link to follow him, and once making sure Link understood that gesture walked off.

The distance travelled was not as long, and after setting her son to return home with the basket of shells the lady accompanied Link along with what appeared to be the headman. The headman barked words at the crowd, selecting a few people from them and calling up a few soldiers to escort them, leading the troupe off into the largest building in the village.

Largest, in terms of width rather than height. It only stood two floors up, but took up twice as much land as any other building. The entrance was heavily decorated, with chandeliers and ornaments and coloured tapestries everywhere, but the room he led them too was more practical: a large wooden table in the centre, with stools organised around it. A large window allowed in enough sunlight to see the large map placed on the table, but lamp racks were located in all corners and on the table to allow work during night time. Two men were inside before them, discussing quietly over the map.

"I think there's a certain blueprint to creation, and emotion," Link muttered softly to Navi, "that all living intelligent beings follow the same blueprint of expression. Like the Zoras, and Gorons – their bodies are very different from Hylians, Kokiris, Gerudos and Sheikahs, but a smile is a smile all over. I think all facial expressions mean the same thing."

"And what do their faces tell you?" Navi queried, pointing to the two men near the map.

"They are worried. The left guy looks angry, and the right guy looks frightened, but they're not angry and frightened of each other."

The old man ushered everyone to sit down, drawing a stool for himself near the table. One of the soldiers attempted to remove the weapons Link was carrying around, and although reluctant to part with many of them, he refused to let the soldier touch the three swords. Link remembered Tylos wielding the Feral sword, and his account of how Shakaku shepherded him into that corner. Maybe the Triforce, or maybe magic protected Link from similar effects, but neither of them were available in this magic-dry land to grant the same protection to the soldier.

The old man saw Link's constant refusal to let the soldier take the three swords, and saying something waved to the soldier to give up. Gesturing for Link to sit down, he waited for everyone to be settled before asking the two men to resume talking.

Although Link couldn't understand their language, he could understand what the map was implying, and through their gestures and little models what the present condition was. To the west were many red figurines and the presenters made a show of these red figurines swarming and surrounding small blue figurines in the distance before eventually taking the blue figurines off the map. The coastal areas were still primarily blue, although they made a point to show how the line in between red and blue wavered.

From what Link could interpret, blue was us, red was Shakaku and his army. No one seemed to care about him enough to translate any of their speech, but when Link pointed to the now much ripped poster and the red figurines, the lady nodded. The only reason the coast was still theirs was because they could ship soldiers back and forth, pooling their strengths wherever the enemy attempted to attack. The worry however was that if Shakaku could control one port, he could disrupt their aid chain and effectively isolate them from any neighbouring help while he picked them off one by one, and even worse, use the sea to invade as well as by land.

Link idly wondered why they weren't using black figurines instead of red, since Shakaku seemed to favour using Dark Copies to attack, but perhaps black stone took more effort to whittle into shapes than red. He also wondered why the headman wished him to come to the meeting: clearly he could not speak their language, and the only thing they knew of Link was that he wanted Shakaku dead. They appeared to share the same sentiment.

As they discussed deeper into the night, Link whiled away those hours studying the map, identifying the mountain ridge to the north – so much like Hyrule, in that part – and numerous tributaries that cut across from west to east, all filling into a giant river down south that fed into the bay. Link noted that the numbers of red and blue figurines near those parts were evenly matched. It was mainly the centre of the country and the west that was more red than blue, and noting from the fancier script placed under some settlements it appeared that Shakaku managed to capture their capital city as well.

"Looks like a disease, doesn't it," Navi commented when Link shared his thoughts, "striking in the centre and where people are closest together, only leaving stragglers on the periphery to survive and fight on. Except that this infection doesn't seem to be losing momentum."

Aside from letting Link see their present plight and allow him to try and vaguely comprehend their battle plans, there was no purpose in having him there. The headman barked a few more orders, and afterwards the lady led him back to the building her child came from.

Link was impressed with the idea these people came up with, pretty much stacking a house on top of another house to save on space. There were a few sacrifices made in terms of safety, as the staircase she led him up didn't look capable of supporting a rapid evacuation in case of fire, but maybe precautions were made elsewhere. Navi was intent in listening to the lady's cheerful chatter as she led them up to the fourth floor and upon realising she lost her key, just kicked the door open.

Through gestures she made it apparent that Link was going to be given lodging in her house, setting up a bed in the kitchen, and leading him around so he knew where the toilet and shower was. The little baby, upon smelling the soothing scents of home, woke up to resume wailing, letting her mother tend to it whilst cooking up a simple meal. The young boy sat on the kitchen table, and after looking at the newcomers intently resumed his business of finding the smallest shells and stringing them to make necklaces. The bigger ones were glued together to make animals – an owl, a hamster, a rather fat dog – with the rest scattered across a half complete map made totally of shells.

"That's an impressive job," Navi remarked, floating down to a basket filled with shell bracelets, "I wonder where the father is. This lady looks pretty self sufficient, supporting two kids on her own."

"Maybe he's one of those soldiers, and sends back money?" Link shrugged. "Who knows? It's not like we can ask, and it'll be rude if we do. Anyway, it's time to eat, and best not insult our host by leaving the food alone."

There is a way to tell whether a country is embroiled thickly in war, and that's when there are food rations. To accommodate her guests the lady had to stretch their food a bit thin, watering down the watery potato soup, cutting thinner slices of bread and distributing smaller rice cakes. The five year old boy looked disappointed with the reduced portions, but after a short bout of complaining and whimpering spent his time eating, trying to savour each bite. The lady looked apologetic, and said something to the two.

Link was surprised when Navi said something back. Although clearly made of broken sentences, words missing and often incorrect accenting, the fairy managed to convey a message back to their host. She bobbed down to the bowl beneath her, bobbed towards the child, and then bobbed back to Link. The host, visibly impressed, nodded slowly before retrieving the bowl.

"What did you say? When did you learn their speech?" Link asked, amazed. "What did she say?"

"I said," Navi replied, smug in her victory over the language barrier, "that I do not need to eat as much and can share with you, while as a feeding mother she should take my portion and share it with her child. I learnt this country's speech during their mass of shouting – unhappy people tend to say the same things, so it was a matter of correlating their words to our own – and the hours in that boardroom. That's what you have fairy partners for – we learn a heck a lot faster than you ever would." Drifting down to take a bite from the rice cake, she added, "The lady apologises for the small meal, and says that she should be able to get a food ticket for you. Or something along those lines."

"Oh," Link blinked, picking Navi out of his soup, "well, can you say we're thankful for her hospitality, and don't intend to impose ourselves too much."

Finding that Navi could somehow speak their language the lady spoke more energetically, discussing about issues ranging from her job, the large number of soldiers present, the welfare of her two children, to ancient beliefs, religions and governing bodies. With each topic Navi understood a bit more of the language's words and grammar, and could relay the talk to Link in better detail.

After sending her son to bed and nursing her child, the lady gestured for Link to sit down, and pointed to the ripped poster he still held. Speaking softly, she said a few words before waiting for Navi to translate it for her.

"Our host wishes to tell you of Shakaku's presence in this country," Navi said, nodding for the lady to continue. "He appeared two years ago, so that's around half a year before we met each other again, and ordered a city to change religion."

The lady sighed, and said a few subdued words. "They did not, so Shakaku killed them, turning into a bull to gore apart man, woman and child."

She spoke again, longer this time, biting her lip and glancing out the window as if speaking of the event will summon it upon them. There was an underlying tone to her body expression, one of tenseness, disbelief and worry, and she seemed ready to just keep talking on before remembering Navi had to pause to translate it.

Confused, Navi asked her to say it again, saying that she did not understand some of the words. The lady slowly nodded, and repeated her message, but this time with hand gestures. One hand flattened into a knife and struck the palm of her other hand. Both faced up and slowly rose. She raised her hands; fingers splayed, and made a show of lowering one finger. Curl into fists, release slowly and stretch out.

"Oh dear," Navi muttered, floating unsteadily to Link's shoulder, "that is not good."

"What?"

"Shakaku killed them all, but brought them back up again. He resurrected them. He said that the god of their new religion decided to be merciful on them, but that they must worship him instead. They however must spread this new religion, guided by Shakaku, to other parts of the country, and of every ten followers made, kill one as an offering. Then, once all of the country is controlled, gear their armies to invade beyond the borders, to force this new religion on everyone else."

"Yes, that is not good."

"More than not good!" Zipping in front of his face, she clutched his eyebrows and floated back and forth to shake him. "From what this lady tells me, this is a god of death, of destruction, one that enjoys murder and killing. You may not know this, but worshippers add to a god's strength, where the more worshippers there are the stronger the god, so what Shakaku is doing is weakening the opposition deities, and bulking up his god! And if his god is stronger, then in effect so are he, and his armies!" Releasing his eyebrows, he floated a distance away to let Link's eyes readjust. "Did you ever wonder why the Dark Copies are getting tougher each time? Why they once were weak to sunlight, to weak to blood, to weak to nothing at all? Well, their god's growing pretty powerful, and so are they."

"Ah." Sensing that her guests had enough to digest for a day, the lady gestured to the bed and with a courteous goodnight, left them to their devices.

"Do you ever think that the Goddesses direct our motions sometimes?" Link said at length, puttering over to the blankets. "That they tweak what we do, where we go, and make up fate on the spot?"

"Sometimes," Navi replied, unsure where this was going, "although the holy scriptures talk of free will – they let us choose what paths we take, but I get the feeling they may encourage some more than others. Why'd you ask?"

"Follow the wind, I said. Wind is Farore's speciality, isn't it? I mean, that's what one of my big arsenal spells is called." Mulling it over, he wondered aloud, "I wonder why I chose to follow the wind. I wonder why the wind I followed led here. I wonder whether maybe if I help out here, I help Hyrule somehow."

Navi hummed in agreement. "Deep. Well, unless you actually talk to Farore, it's not like you will know, will you? Well, taking care of you has been pretty strenuous. I'd recommend you sleep, and go out and hunt for a bigger meal tomorrow, but right now I'm going to rest. Don't forget to place your swords somewhere no-one will trip over." Finding a comfortable fold in the blanket, she stretched her wings before curling up to sleep.

Despite being tired himself, Link did not sleep. He came here for a reason, and while Shakaku may be a problem he'll have to deal with later, the poisoning is better dealt as soon as possible.

"I was losing," he growled, settling into lotus position and closing his eyes, "but now I am winning."

Very gently, very carefully, he summoned a small trace of mana. And almost immediately the fog rolled in, thick, viscous and green. But just as quickly he forged his will into a fire, releasing it to battle the fog.

Release mana. Let the fog dissipate, seal in the small traces left behind and destroy. Summon mana. Fog is thick, strangling, and mad. Burn the fog. Release mana. Do it again, and again, and again.

It was a slow process, one that took intense concentration. Link's left hand was burning like mad, the Triforce of Courage pumping through his blood as it added that extra edge to his will. His eyes dilated and shrank repeatedly with each process, but throughout it all he was unseeing, sight cast inwards to find and cleanse the fog from his mana.

_-S-_

_This magic is mine. It is not yours. Give it back._

_Oh, it is ours, for if it is yours, and you are ours, it is ours._

_I am not yours. This magic is mine. Give. It. Back._

_Kill the dead. Kill the dead. Kill the dead. You are mad. You grow mad._

_I am not mad. I will kill you. Now give it back._

_Oh, can you kill your mind? Your soul, your spirit, your magic, can you kill it?_

_You are not me. You are poison, infectious, and not me. My magic is my own._

_Your magic, I grant you that. But your soul, your spirit, your mind? Those are ours._

_Nothing binds me. Not you, not anyone. I am I. You are not me. My soul is my own._

_Oh, nothing binds you. Such words, little fool, from one with a broken spirit._

_My will is my own. My magic is my own. I am I. You do not belong. My spirit is my own._

_Do not mock yourself, little fool, you cannot comprehend us. You are us._

_I am I. You are not me. Now be gone, give my magic back. It is not yours._

_Kill the dead. You are mad. You mind is ours to play with, a toy. A broken toy._

_You do not think like me. I am I. My magic is my own. My mind is my own._

_We own all. You, your world, your life, your existence. We own all._

_Then who owns you? You exist only in me. I own you. I seal you. And I'll kill you. My will is my law. My magic is my own. Now GIVE IT BACK!_

_-S-_

And Link broke from the meditation, sweating, tired, drained. His senses slowly returned to him, the itch of the woollen blanket beneath, the dirty white walls lit by dying candles around, and the screams and shouts and alarms everywhere.

"Took you long enough!" Navi hissed, darting out the window to look and back, "Now get up and out! Shakaku attacks!"

_-S-_

A/N: Wow. Took me a while to update, didn't it? Well, I hope someone out there understood this chapter. I wrote this when I was sick (I still am, actually. Damned sicknesses) so I used sickness as my beginning theme.

Well, as usual: comments, criticisms, likes, dislikes, the usual abundance of stuff that all fanfic authors crave from their audience: appreciation. This chapter is slightly shorter than what I normally do, but I think it's alright. Tell me if it isn't, and whatever you would like added in, covered, etc. etc. etc.

Oh yeah, the other theme of this chapter: my good reviewer's pen name. Very useful, actually. Gives me something to work upon. Cheers, buddy.

Until next time (aka another month), enjoy. Cost of entry: one review. Please pay as you leave.

Silence-Darkness.


	35. Weapon of Fear

A/N: Okay, nevermind... it took me a lot longer than just 1 month to write this (I only started in May, really). Guess I'm really, really bad at keeping to a timetable: whenever I rest, I always feel like resting, but when I work, I can keep on going. Maybe I should scrap the rest part and keep on working. And it's now... June. Wow. Bet you didn't expect me to update now though, eh? Surprise!

And oh, to **Jahal** **Era**, who took the time to take a look at what the names I've given for my demons mean in Japanese: while relation is purely coincidental, it's nice that things like this happens: makes it look like there's a deeper meaning to everything.

Chapter 33: Weapon of Fear

"What the hell are you thinking?" Navi screeched above the bells and sirens, "you want to fight? You haven't truly eaten or slept for four days, and you still want to fight? There's a bloody huge army waiting out there!"

"And is waiting inside going to help?" Link replied tiredly, strapping on his gear to his belt; his attempt to cleanse his magic had not been as fruitful as he hoped, and the weight of wearing all his steel made him want to drop. The acrid scent of smoke wafted from the window was slowly draining him of energy. "Besides, this land is magic dry. Shakaku probably can't summon any dead things or Dark Copies, so the army's going to be made of his human followers."

The lady had ushered her son to take the baby and hide in the bedroom; right then she was standing protectively in front of its door, a sword of cheap steel clutched tightly in her hands. Through veteran eyes Link could tell from her grip that she was inexperienced in sword fighting. Against any invader, even if she managed to block a swing, the blade will buckle and snap from its poor quality.

"So? Humans have one thing magic substances and the dead don't have: intelligence. They can think for themselves, plan and execute attacks with greater efficiency. And in your tired state, an organised weak mass is as deadly as a single-minded strong army." Navi noticed Link observing their hostess' weapon and contemplating his own. Shaking her head and sighing, she supplied, "Give her one of the scimitars. You built it to be light and for female hands, and you only know how to use one weapon, not two."

True. Strapping on the last of his pouches, he collected his swords from the wall. He contemplated taking the three Swords, but decided it would be safer out there than left here.

The lady was a pitiful sight: she was anxious, but determined to protect her children. She had no experience on how to fight, but was willing to clash swords if she needed to. Proffering one of Reza's custom made scimitars, Link could only smile sadly at her apprehensive glance to the weapon. Could she use it? No better than she could use the low quality weapon. Would she need to use it? If she did, at least this gave her a fighting chance.

"But humans have one thing the dead do not have, and I intend to exploit that to its fullest," he whispered as he walked down the stairway. He remembered the child's face: lips tightened in worry, cheeks pinched in anger and eyes narrowed in determination. This was not the first incursion the boy had experienced.

"What?"

Link remembered the lady's face: pale, eyes wide and teeth clenched. She was afraid for her children, for her country, for herself.

Link slipped his hand into one pouch, pulling out the Fierce Deity's mask. The etches and tattoos gave the mask its own demonic look. The people had been afraid of Majora; Majora had been afraid of this. Putting it back into its pouch, his lips twisted into a grim smile.

"Fear."

_-S-_

Malon did not consider herself a lazy person, unlike a few people she could mention. Only when the sun settled beneath the horizon did she stop tending to the animals, and even then she will take a wicker lamp and patrol the farm, closing whatever gates were left open, ensuring enough feed was given to the cuccos and taking note of what needs to be repaired the next day. Ingo liked to complain that people in Castletown didn't have to suffer six day weeks and eleven hour days. Malon liked to complain _Ingo_ didn't have to deal with seven day weeks and fourteen hour days. It wasn't that she didn't like taking care of the animals, it was just that she found it unfair that even on public holidays, when adults are resting and other children are playing around, she still has to tend to the farm.

But it was due to her work ethic that while trying to untangle a considerable knot in one of the ropes under kerosene fuelled light did she see Epona trot back to the farm. She frowned when she noticed Epona lacking a specific rider: usually when Link dismissed Epona to let her have a break, he brought her to the ranch personally. Rarely did he ever let her make her way alone, even though he knew Epona could.

"Hello girl," Malon welcomed, letting Epona nuzzle the stained apron she hadn't taken off from cleaning the cow barn, "Fairy Boy been taking care of you well? Is he taking care of himself, for that matter?" Smiling at her snorts, Malon led her horse back into the ranch, but not before giving the knot a good yank and giving up in frustration.

"Oh, daddy can fix that tomorrow morning. Honestly, he has to learn to wake up a bit earlier." Approaching the horse stables, Malon continued her light patter on why Ingo keeps insisting on locking the large doors and making everyone go in from the side entrances, why nearly every ranch help grows apprehensive when she offers one of the sandwiches she made and how they ask for sick leave afterwards, and how she believed one ranch help was smuggling out cow dung for some obscure purpose. Illuminated by the wicker lamp Epona looked in perfect condition as always, but once they entered the stronger lights of the stable, Malon could see her horse more clearly and her banter died off.

It wasn't any physical injury that killed the conversation; aside from some light scratches on the legs indicating Epona travelled through some harsh vegetation, there were no other blemishes or bruises. As Malon was the sole person who took care of Epona, they had a bond few others were privy into. And this bond said that Epona was afraid.

"What is it, girl?" Malon whispered, stroking Epona's neck, "is it about Link? Do you think that Link is in trouble?"

Epona's eyes said yes.

"Don't worry," she continued soothingly, "when is he never in trouble? He'll get himself out, I'm sure of that. I'm sure he's fine." Inwardly though she was worried: she was sure that two days ago the rider she saw in the distance was Link and Epona, but revised her opinion when they suddenly swerved south, moving away from the Ranch. Now though the feeling that it was Link and Epona returned, raising the question why they suddenly changed directions in the first place.

Hugging her horse, she repeated herself, partly to soothe Epona, partly to relax herself. "I'm sure he's fine."

_-S-_

If anything, Link was not fine. The shouts from one end of the town hall to the other end of the barracks, coupled with the continuous ringing of bells, were giving him a headache. Soldiers jogged past, some taking note of the number of pointy objects on his person and altering their course, others believing him another kid and nudging him out of the way. Whatever Shakaku's army was doing, it appeared that it was trying to smoke out the defenders, taking the opportunity the wind gave to flush fires in their direction. The soot was getting in his eyes, nose and mouth and left the most unpleasant sensations.

The enemy soldiers stood a few hundred metres away, jeering and taunting from a distance safe from archer fire. The men that armed the barricades were visibly worried, something that the enemies encouraged: face paints decorating them in the guise of a beast, and instead of wielding the standard sword or spear, many of them were armed with spiked flails, oversized axes and double sided scythes attached to chains. And that was just the front line – the rear contained disciplined soldiers geared with kite shields and very impressive looking spears. It was clear that one group was meant to scare, and the other to kill.

Link understood their battle tactic: so long as the wind keeps blowing the right direction, the fires will steadily encroach towards the town defences, and then people will have to abandon their defensive positions to fight the fire, leaving a break that the enemy can exploit. And while they're torn in the indecision of unmanning the defences or maintaining vigilance the acrid air will drink away their strength, leaving them nauseous, dizzy: in poor form to fight.

At some point their jeers coalesced into a single chant, the men screaming their words at the defenders. Rather than upset them though, the soldiers grew angry, replying with a barrage of words of their own.

"What are they saying?" Link asked, frowning at the approaching fire. "Standard 'give up or we'll slaughter you all'?"

Navi shook her head. "The men you insist on fighting are yelling 'death to all non-believers'. The soldiers manning the walls are shouting back 'death to all heretics'. Our town-guards are very upset by their fellow countrymen's conversion of faith."

Link grunted; the fires were getting too close for his liking. Pushing aside the soldiers cordoning off the gate he stepped outside the town's walls, choosing to ignore Navi's comment on how the guards said he will be killed and how the enemy said they will kill him.

Link could not see any archers among the enemy crowd – perhaps bows were not as frightening as the assortment of alternative weapons they could carry. Link's intention was not to kill the enemy army – no single person could do that – but to break their fighting spirit, which would hopefully rally the soldiers to actually go out and fight. Picking an area where the fires had died out, he adjusted his facing and sprinted.

They grinned and snarled, hammering their axes against the ground in an assembled war stomp before charging against the lone man. Others on the flanks took note of the break in formation, and moved forward as well to cover the hole.

"What by Din's name do you think you're doing Link! You can't fight off two thousand odd soldiers at once! You block one man's attack and you get stabbed by the next! I don't want a dead you – oh."

The people of Lairok would understandably be unfamiliar with the vegetation of Hyrule. But a man can tell when a weapon is drawn, and the world over, a bomb looks like a bomb: even if composed totally of organic matter, the fuse was a dead giveaway.

Part of the charge slowed down, the men worried about a grinning kid charging at them with one explosive in hand. While Shakaku ordered them to kill any who opposed them and convert the rest, they did not particularly feel like dying in the process.

Wiggling his fingers for dramatic flair, Link reached into his bomb bag and pulled out another.

"Just to let you know, I still think that you're crazy."

Twenty-five metres: those that identified the increased rate at which the bombs were flashing as a sign they were about to go critical broke from the charge, choosing to run back. The others were upset at the sudden holes in their assault.

One flash...

Twenty metres: Link supposed he wasn't built for mad cackling, but that's the best action to fit the mood.

Two flashes...

Fifteen metres: The waves of soldiers charging at Link were rapidly diminishing; the crazed charge of explosives frightening them. There were no more than a hundred people curving towards him. Enough for him to handle.

Three flashes and throw!

Link hurled both bombs at the nearest soldiers, smiling as the rest broke when the explosions burnt ten men and knocked back another forty. Link knew what sight was left for the surrounding soldiers: their brothers with boiling skin, leather and wool melted to join the flesh. Everyone is afraid of fire. Screams erupted from the afflicted soldiers.

"You know what happens when you don't get enough sleep?" Link yelled at the startled enemy soldiers, whipping out bombs and throwing them in front of the densest formations in reach, "You get cranky. And a cranky man is an angry man. And believe me: you won't like what I can do when I'm angry."

The brave were now surrounding him, sealing off his escape routes while ensuring that bombs he could employ could not affect them all. One man, twice as large as Link and looking five times heavier, managed to get close enough to take a swing with his zweihänder. Had this zweihänder been a foot shorter, it would have been an excellent weapon, managing to balance the need for weight, reach and speed. Alas, someone decided that seven foot weapons were the most impressive, and while the additional foot of length did not make it that much heavier, it made it that much clumsier.

Rolling his eyes, Link hopped to the left, letting the blade sink into the dry earth. Wiggling his fingers again the men surrounding flinched back expecting another Bomb Flower. Instead of reaching for his bag however, Link grabbed the hilt of one of his many weapons.

"Terror weapons? Pfah! You want to know what a real terror weapon looks like?" The Megaton Hammer only weighed a megaton on the receiving end; for the wielder, it was light enough for him to swing above his head to build up momentum. "Your terror weapons can only scare! My terror weapon can hurt!"

Spin, spin, spin spin spin _spinspinspinspin_ _SLAM_...

Link did not aim for the man's sword, for while the shockwaves that travelled up the weapon would have ripped the poor guy's arms off, they were too concentrated, and Link wanted a greater area of effect. The only warning the men had was Link's maniacal grin and fissures in the earth.

The shockwaves only started half a metre from the area of impact, leaving a metre diameter of calm. Outside this ring of peace the ground buckled, stone and soil spraying outwards as the very earth folded like cloth to disperse the energy of the wave. Men could feel the ground tear underneath them, but blinded by the dust flung into the air they didn't know which direction to run.

And when an armed mob gets messy, it really gets messy.

"Funny, I don't remember it doing that the last time," Link commented, observing the chaos surrounding him. "It looks like the defenders managed to put out the fires though."

"You know, for a maniacally insane plan," Navi said, "I have to give it to you: it's working. Those guys are screaming about another demon in their midst." When the debris settled enough for Link to see, those that surrounded him had fled with numerous cuts on their arms from friendly weapons.

Link took no time in taking advantage of the opening laid in front of him, and hammer whirling charged right through for the real soldiers. Hopefully the routing friends would have disturbed the disciplined soldiers, along with the fiery arrows aided by a growing wind flying their way...

"OH BUGGER! I'M ON YOUR SIDE!" Link screamed, rolling to a halt and pulling out his Hylian shield. It was at times like these he was glad his arm strength had grown enough for him to evolve from the usual Deku bark shield into something less flammable. The enemy's kite shields were large enough to give sufficient protection, although from the smouldering Link could see they were made of wood – lacquered perhaps to provide some heat resistance, but wood nonetheless.

Plopping his shield onto his back and squatting like a turtle, Link tried to ignore the sounds of burning points deflected by the curvature of his shield and sailing past his ears. The real soldiers were smart at least – they weren't progressing as a long line, but as square-shaped units that could afford to be more mobile in their motion and apply a greater concentration of spears quickly. Hopping behind a smouldering tree – set on fire by the flaming arrows or the previous attempt to smoke the defenders out, Link did not know – he surveyed for the closest unit. Thighs and waists speared with arrows the men wanted to run. Someone shouted at them, and slowly they turned their bleeding forms around, bearing their blades in the direction of the defenders.

Link frowned. Who could inspire a fear greater than death and injury?

The wind grew stronger, ripping leaves free from the trees and slapping them against attackers and defenders alike. A wall of dust swept past Link, fanning the flames of burning points.

"You may want to move soon, because dressed in green against a black and brown background everyone's going to converge on you," Navi commented, pointing to the curve growing in the front lines. "Running back will be a good idea."

"The idea is fear, Navi, and me running is going to spoil all that effort I went through." Frowning, Link pulled out a Bombchu and fiddled for its switch. "I can't move while they're shooting arrows all over the place though; can you fly back and tell them to quit with the shooting and just charge from the gates?" With its adorned whiskers and eyes, the Bombchu looked more like a child's toy than a weapon. And half the time Link believed so: to allow space for its motor, its explosive power was reduced to beneath a standard bomb flower's own, which were already weak enough that they weren't capable of causing casualties on anything that could move with the blast.

"You know, men as opposed to arrows is strategically inferior-"

"Do I look like a general here?" Link snapped, earning Navi's glare. "You play that role, not me. I don't need them to die, just to run away. If they're afraid of this place, they'll be a heck more hesitant to attack again. And overzealous defenders put up a greater show than a bunch of arrows." Who was the commander to frighten his army to charge through a torrent of arrows?

"I'd like to argue with you on that point, because-" Another flaming arrow struck the tree they hid behind. Creaking, a branch splintered off, smoking husk narrowly missing Navi. "I'm going, I'm going."

Setting the Bombchu on the ground, he let its navigation system fly, hoping that he wasn't so unfortunate to have an arrow stick into it while it was close to him. The men without shields were falling apart under the hail of burning arrows, so Link targeted the men with them – he needed more men fleeing to cause a mass rout.

The waves of burning arrows slowly ceased, and after the Bombchu exploded Link lunged, pulling out his Megaton hammer again. A hanging bough was reduced to a conflagration of sawdust on contact. More fuel to the enemy's fear. Nearing the wall of spears he swung, letting the hammer smash through the points in its journey for the ground.

The results weren't pretty. Weighted down with armour, these men didn't tumble as much as the others from the shockwave, but it also meant that once their bodies were given a tilt, it was a difficult fight to pull them upright. One man lost the fight and crashed into his neighbouring spearman. Already unsteady from the moving ground, that man fell too.

Link mentally took a note to use the hammer more often. Few weapons are able to turn a cohesive army unit into a block of dominoes. Strapping the Megaton hammer to his back, he pulled out the hookshot to target another group. Wooden shields make good targets.

"Scattering already?" Link shouted past the howling wind, "That's a pity, because I can do this for a very long time."

Point embedded in someone's shield, Link pulled out a Deku Nut as he sailed through the air, using the added momentum to give the Nut enough speed to land right in the middle of their formation. Stunned, they were already falling down. Not impressive looking enough: Link wanted a bit more artistry.

He was noticeably surprised when a blade ploughed down on the hookshot's chain, ripping the point out and sending him skidding to the ground.

"How long is long, hmm? You are tiring." Face layered in dirt, Link could not tell whose voice it was from the din of battle and the scream of wind. But since when did the people of Lairok understand how to speak Hylian?

Someone's boot smashed into his shoulder as a sword's point rested on his neck. "Fancy meeting you here, of all places. Was Hyrule getting too boring for you?"

A gale of leaves. A flash of red. Link snarled. "Shakaku."

"It's been a while, hasn't it? They've been good times, haven't they?" The blade left for a second, but only to give space for the boot that smashed into Link's jaw, spiked studs razing across his neck as it rolled him over. The blade returned, but this time resting on his chest.

"You're in worse shape. And you thought you could keep on fighting." Shakaku clucked, pinning Link's sword arm down with his foot. Shakaku's grin widened as he ground the spikes deeper into Link's wrist. "You speak of scaring my men, but not of killing them. Tell me: have you ever killed a fellow man? A fellow citizen of the earth, who eats and works to survive, much like you do?"

Link froze for a moment. "Ganon and the Steel Ghost will answer that for you." Snarling, he reared his right arm to deliver a punishing swing to Shakaku's knee joint. His motion froze when the sword tip nestled itself deeper into his chest, piercing through the skin and flesh to press against bone.

"Two people only? Pitiful. From what I've studied, Ganon was more beast than man when you sealed him. Not killed. And there are two things wrong with your reference to the Steel Ghost." Shakaku's boot pressed deeper against Link's arm as he spun the sword lazily on Link's chest. Link's gritted teeth could not contain his hiss of pain.

"First, the Steel Ghost isn't human. Second, the Steel Ghost isn't dead."

Shakaku smirked at Link's downed form. "You know," almost contemplatively he tapped his eye patch, "I've never managed to punish you for this yet." The boot left Link's arm to stomp on his abdomen. Curling up in pain, Link didn't have much of a defence against Shakaku grabbing his collar and resting his sword on Link's cheek.

"It's nothing personal, I assure you," a quick glance around showed that Shakaku's army was wise enough to leave the demon's affairs to the demon, and were busy trying to restrain the defender's sally forth. "But you know what they say: an eye for an eye. And I will enjoy skewering you."

Left arm being nothing more than a mutilated mess, his right arm fumbled around his pouches for the masks; he didn't know what another application of magic will do to him, but he needed the power quickly if he wanted to escape this mess.

His organs seemed to sink as Shakaku reared back his arm: the pouch was missing. Of all his equipment, everything but the very basics had been knocked off earlier.

"Can I say something?" Desperately grabbing the closest pouch's contents, he cursed when he felt them.

Why the hell was he bringing rupees to the battlefield?

"As the gentleman I am, I should say yes." Shakaku paused, savouring the angle of looking down the blade at Link. "No."

That was enough time. Reaching into the last pouch he had, he hurled the contents at Shakaku's face as a final distraction.

It hurt when the Deku Nuts all exploded, but as Link staggered away with eyes of fire, he consoled himself that it probably hurt Shakaku more. The howls of pain and fury told him as much.

"Yes, an eye for an eye," Link croaked, weakly groping for his equipment, "a pity it's your eye for your eye."

_-S-_

"Who made the Spirit Temple?"

Nabooru wasn't one of your classic hardworking leaders of society: she did not sieve through paperwork, nor spend time alone for personal contemplation, nor actually own an office. She led through discussion, generally held at dinner tables. People are more likely to concern themselves with getting food to the plate when that's literally happening in front of them.

Such an open work area made her easy to approach, and given that she generally worked when she was eating, it meant she had plenty of time to just putter around, train with others, and answer any questions thrown her way.

Still, it was a peculiar question. "Why'd you ask, Reza? I thought they taught you this stuff in classes."

Reza had the contemplative pose of a person torn between nodding and shaking the head, and decided to not bother with any cranium motion. "They taught us why the Spirit Temple was made, but now who made it."

Nabooru grunted in acknowledgement. The who's and when's were usually lost among the why's and how's. "Would it satisfy you if I said other Gerudos?" She never imagined Reza to be a study nut: like many of her kin, Reza appeared more interested in the improvement of the battle than in anything else.

Reza shrugged. "Maybe. But what type of Gerudos? Where did they get all their architectural ideas from, if they were nomads? Who designed the layout?"

Nabooru's eyebrows could only arch so high. "Why _are_ you asking this?"

"Navi once mentioned that the armour Maira gave me to test out once made me look like the Desert Colossus." She waved her palm across her body in the figure of the snakeskin armour. "Link said that he once fought a Gyz, a giant snake with impossibly strong scales."

Nabooru nodded. "Yes, the Gyz that inhabits the Haunted Wastelands apparently inhabits some parts of the Lost Woods. A very versatile creature, that one."

"Did the previous Gerudo ever wear snakeskin as armour? Otherwise why would they stylise the Desert Colossus as wearing one?"

"Hunting a Gyz and bringing back its carcass as a trophy used to be a rite of passage, but it was scrapped when the sandstorms became more punishing and the Gyz's becoming a lot more vicious. If you didn't die from the wounds received, you'd get lost and die anyway."

"You took the Gyz Link killed, right?"

Nabooru wasn't sure where this conversation was going. "Yes, and we ate the meat a whiles back."

"If one person wears that as armour and goes to hunt another Gyz, then the problem of wounds will be diminished, making it just a matter of getting back home. It's not that hard to carry around a few flagged stakes to use for a trail."

"Yes, but who'll go? Someone needs to test this idea of yours, and I doubt many will be interested."

Reza grinned. "The others will follow after me. Imagine it: armour stronger than plated steel but lighter than chainmail. Battle will become that much more interesting when sword strokes just bounce of you. Link mentioned about how with most battles, if you can survive the initial clash, it's really about staying power. And being able to ignore killer strokes is some serious staying power."

Nabooru shook her head. "You've been hanging out with him far too long. Really, if he talks about staying power, how come he never wears any armour? Just him and his weenie little shield."

"Whatever he does, it works: he's still alive," Reza shrugged.

"Alright," Nabooru sighed, clapping Reza's shoulder, "I'll see what Maira can do to fashion the scales into armour for your build. She's already made sword grips out of the bone – apparently they feel nicer than leather – so tweaking with the skin shouldn't be that hard. Thinking about running off into the Haunted Wastelands to fight an oversized snake; you've definitely spent too much time with Link. Only he will think of something so foolhardy."

"Even with him, we're both breathing," Reza laughed. When Nabooru removed her hand, Reza bowed respectfully before turning away.

"Since you get to ask one question, so do I," Nabooru called out before Reza turned the corridor, "why did you go with Link? You weren't obligated to do anything, unless you're serious about the Kiss of-"

"No," Reza cut in firmly, shaking her head, "I don't plan on going down that road. Not while he's still the suicidal maniac you paint him as. It's a Debt: you don't know how horrible that mask of his is." Shivering, she glanced out the nearby window where little children were learning the basics of the Gerudo Spin. "The sheer anger and madness... there's another voice besides your own, one that promises of power and ruin. It speaks, and you cannot help but listen. And when you hear it, you get the feeling that slowly you are dying..." She turned away from the window and closed her eyes. "I don't know how Link can stand that mask, but I'm grateful that he sealed it. It's a monster, and it makes a monster out of you."

"Link plays with some dangerous magic," Nabooru agreed, "I wonder how he fares without it. That'll be all Reza; I'll talk to you again when we tailor that suit of armour for you."

_-S-_

When Link thought about it, he never really fought sword-to-sword with Shakaku. The previous times they met, it was either sword against giant bull, or giant hammer against sword. And Link wasn't alone in the first event, and Shakaku didn't even bother to fight in the second.

Link cursed his small size: each furious slash Shakaku delivered literally sent him bouncing off the ground.

"What's wrong with you, little boy? Feeling weak?" With a roar Shakaku lunged forward, hammering Link's sword aside with his own. Link barely managed to block the follow up, but his shield took a severe dent for his efforts. Hopping back Link frowned at the scar that sheared through the Hyrule crest.

Link thought of throwing his money pouch as a distraction, but Shakaku closed the distance too quickly. The shield took a second blow, and listening to the metal screech beneath the force applied Link was sure the thing would crumple like tinfoil. Twisting his sword around, Link spun for a thrust at Shakaku's abdomen. The attack was parried and Link was sent reeling back again.

"No time for parlour tricks, little boy," Shakaku cackled. Blood was trickling from his eye, caking his eyelid and clotting down his cheek. The crimson tears had driven Shakaku into a violent fury, empowering his swings and stamina.

"Sword to sword, huh?" Link flicked a glance at his battered shield: one more strike with the same strength as the last one will rip it to shreds. Discarding it, he unsheathed his personal whistling sword, letting it hum as he cut the air experimentally. "I never used two swords before. I guess now's a fine time to learn how."

Link had to admit that it couldn't be effective. Despite Shakaku's previous gloating over Link's downed form, he was not so arrogant as not to take steps in case Link didn't die like expected. Link's left wrist, punctured from Shakaku's shoe grinding in on it, barely had enough strength to grip a sword, and probably not enough to make a hit hurt.

And Link never used his right arm for sword-fighting before.

Without warning a cannonball flew past Link's face, smashing heavily into the burnt tree nearby. Tumbling back, Link saw a number of ships near the port, the distinctive smoke of ignited gunpowder flashing across their sides as iron balls whistled through the air. Screams erupted wherever the cannonballs managed to hit, and Shakaku's spearmen were hesitant to keep on fighting with iron weights raining upon them. Shakaku himself appeared unaffected by the cannon shots.

"I must ask why you made such a completely useless sword," Shakaku mused, moving in for a simple thrust. Link's block was clumsy, a cross guard made by one sword moving too slowly and the other at the wrong angle. "A sword that sings? Do you honestly expect to kill someone when they know it's coming?"

"I'd like to think of it as a defensive weapon," gritting his teeth Link pushed against Shakaku's blade, clearing space for an opportunistic jab through the defence. That opportunity was wasted, as Link's sword arm couldn't bear the strength needed to move the sword quickly enough and by choosing his other arm, funnily enough he missed.

"You are beyond pathetic," Shakaku laughed, batting aside Link's feeble follow-up to bring his sword in a basic down stroke. "I do not even need skill to kill you. You will kill yourself!" Link opted not to block the blow, preferring to roll to the right instead. Explosions rocked the earth and Link's roll finished just in time to avoid an awry cannon shot.

The problem, Link decided, was composed of three parts: Shakaku being too strong, Shakaku being too fast, and he himself being too slow and weak. There was the bonus that driven by pain Shakaku wasn't thinking straight and was going for very primitive attacks, as well as Link wielding two swords, but with scarily huge strength on his side Shakaku didn't need any overt display of skill.

As a plus, with Shakaku engaged in actual combat the soldiers he employed seemed more willing to run away. As a cannonball ploughed through the lines a unit of spearmen gave up, abandoning their spears and shields to run away.

Jumping aside Link attempted an improvised Gerudo spin, blades whistling in a deadly arc. The attack was nullified when Shakaku swatted aside the first sword and sprinted in close for a shoulder ram, negating the reach of the second blade. Coughing out the red hair thrown in his face, Link wasn't prepared for the hand that clawed his abdomen and hurled him away.

Wheezing, Link supposed that there was a reason why the Gerudos didn't use long swords for that attack. In the event it failed, the reach would become a problem. Maybe he should have picked Reza's scimitar for this fight. He should've invested in better straps if so much of his equipment fell off.

He had no more time to contemplate on that when a sword stabbed where his head once was and quickly scrambling aside he barely avoided the kick that followed.

"You're quite the fan of those spiked boots," Link grunted, rolling to his feet, "I bet you have more than one pair of them." Charging slightly to the right he flicked the whistling sword in a sharp cut for the waist; as expected Shakaku knocked it aside, but that left the left side exposed.

Link frowned when Shakaku's gauntlets were enough to block the other sword. "Shut up and die," Shakaku sneered, pulling his sword for an arc at Link's head. Arching his back Link let the blade sail past his nose, and dropping down he hacked at Shakaku's shins.

His suit of leaves clearly hid whatever armour he wore, for Link's swords made the audible clang of striking steel. Crying out in frustration Link pulled back, dodging the snap kick for his face and the thrust that followed.

Cheers erupted among the defenders when the ships got close enough to dock. Ladders shooting out to meet ground, soldiers charged down from the ships, flooding the battlefield in a new banner of silver and grey.

"You know, I think my side's winning," he commented once he was a safe distance away, "I see that most of your guys are running. Your spearmen aren't doing so well once the swordsmen get in close, and the others are suffering from quite a few injuries."

The safe distance didn't remain safe for long; roaring Shakaku sprinted the length, smashing Link's cross defence with a two-handing swing. Left hand giving way, Link twisted to the right, letting Shakaku push behind him. Twisting to face Shakaku's back, Link lunged for the back of the knees. The whistling sword screamed as it tore through the air.

Laughing Shakaku spun around, sword held low for a basic block. Had Link fully committed himself to the attack, the block would've had the added bonus of sweeping past his swords and striking his legs.

Grinning, Link dropped the whistling sword, letting its final notes scatter among the empty screech of colliding steel. Shakaku's sword tangled with his, Link jumped for the throat.

With his right hand gripping the back of his remaining sword he had the strength needed to drive the edge through. Shakaku stumbled, and Link twisted it deeper.

"Not so useless a sword, is it?" Link smiled, his sword lodged deep in Shakaku's throat, a gleaming horizon that split the heavens from the earth. Blood gargled past Shakaku's lips. "It's the ultimate defence, isn't it? When you hear it, you cannot help but target it. Leaves the other sword rather open."

Shakaku's mouth opened, letting a stream of blood escape. His sole eye burned as a gauntleted hand gripped the sword.

"You're not very smart when you're angry," Link lectured, sawing the blade deeper in, "falling for a simple trick like that." Shakaku grinned.

"And you're not very smart when you're cocky," Shakaku's voice mocked from behind, "you should leave gloating to me." Spinning around Link was surprised at another form of Shakaku standing there uninjured.

The bleeding Shakaku gripped onto Link's arm, pinning him in position. Smiling the uninjured one unsheathed his sword and plunged it through the two pinned forms, stopping only when the hilt smashed into Link's back and the tip stuck out of the other Shakaku's shoulder.

A scream wrenched free from Link's lips, and his eyes widened when the form wedged on his blade broke apart in a storm of leaves.

Shakaku laughed, maniacal, mocking and derisive. "Did you honestly think I came to this battle to fight you? Did you honestly think you were fighting me, and not just a fabrication I created?" Slowly drawing his sword free, Shakaku spun Link around so they were face to face. "You thought you had me figured out, hmm? 'He moves rigidly because he's angry.' 'He doesn't use anything other than brute force because he's so cocky that's all he needs.' You never thought that if I could make Dark Copies of others, I can make a Copy of myself? This place is magic dry, but not magic dead."

Contemplating the myriad of swords Link left scattered around, Shakaku smirked. "Funny. If you were able to use magic, you could have detected that clone was not the real me. A tragedy you wouldn't, isn't it?"

Shoving Link's limp form to the ground, Shakaku drove his sword through Link's chest, pinning him to the earth below. "Know this: as good as you think you are at inspiring fear, I'm better. I don't need my men alive; you do. This pitiful city's captain has been killed, their leader captured and half their own armed force sporting more injuries than their pathetic hospitals can support. Maybe those boats will ferry the injured to other cities; maybe they'll die before they reach them." Seeing the blood bubble from Link's mouth, he laughed, crouching close.

"It's not time for you to die, boy. You will be my final tool of fear, because there's something I have that belongs to you." Reaching into a pocket Shakaku pulled out a tiny figure, one that's glow was dying. "Or maybe for you, it's a someone."

Link's eyes flared. He coughed the blood filling at the base of his mouth. "Bastard... Navi... give her back..." Weakly he reached a hand forward, to have his arm crushed beneath a spiked shoe.

"If you kept her with you, she would have told you that you're fighting the wrong guy." He dangled her limp form by her wings, swaying her in front of Link's face. "If you kept her with you, I couldn't have taken her so easily. If you just stayed in Hyrule, she would have been safe.

"Discord, fear, worry. Spread it well, puppet. We have plans for you. And don't forget to pick up your swords." Laughing Shakaku disappeared in a whir of leaves and wind, taking the unconscious form of Navi with him.

"Bastard... Navi, damnit... Navi..."

And darkness claimed him.

_-S-_

_Pathetic brat._ _This is all you have?_

Navi, I have to get back Navi. I must get back Navi.

_Navi, Navi, Navi. Is that all you ever think about? You're pathetic. Not "I'll rip that bastard into shreds and drink the blood of his followers" or "They all deserve to die as sacrifices to me" but "Oh, I have to save Navi!" _

I have to save Navi.

_See? That's the complete utter crap I'm getting from you. What the hell was I thinking, backing you up? Oh yes: death, murder, slaughter! You are a swordsman and a warlock! Burn them, tear them, for the Love of Din KILL THEM!_

Who are you?

_Well, I don't know. If I didn't know who I was, you won't be the only idiot around, eh? You would like that, hmm? To know you're not the only complete retard around? Honestly, to fall for such a stupid trick? Luckily I know my name, ha!_

Who are you?

_Oh, your vernacular never ceases to dumbfound me. And not in a good way. Who am I? I am bloody power. I am strength beyond your itty-bitty mind, beyond your mortal reach and hell beyond you. And yet you have me. Ugh, of all insults the Goddesses throw my way they use _this_. Has the Ogre God fallen that far from grace? Ah, stupid question. _

Ogre God? You are the Fierce Deity? How come I can hear you?

_Because you're dead?_ _That would be funny, wouldn't it?_

...What?

_Relax – if you were dead you wouldn't be hearing anything at all. Maybe yourself; I wouldn't know, for I never died. Killed a hell a lot of people, cleaned out cities and villages, but for my experience with death I never died._

Didn't you get sealed into the mask?

_Well, of course not! How else would you know me? You know, what is with morons like you and their dumb questions? Dimwit, if I was not stuck in that accursed mask I would be off doing my favourite pastime. _

How come I can hear you?

_Che._ _Although you're not dead, you're very close. Brink, borderline. Someone only needs to slap your face to send you falling into the cold. Hmm, is that a slap I hear? Regardless, your seals on the masks have broken, given that you're right now at zero mana. I'm just waiting for another idiot to pick me up and let me possess his body. Female bodies don't feel right._

What do you want?

_Want? I want to throttle the nearest person – which happens to be you. I want to stick my hand deep into some sap's entrails and rip them free from his gut. I want to twist a man's neck and let his children drown in the blood that flows forth. I want to see Majora die again and again and again, and I want to laugh at his rotten carcass as I force his people to eat him. You want to know what I want?_

...No. But why are you here?

_Why? Haven't been participating in your history lessons, hmm? Which part of me being trapped in a mask have you forgotten? Why am I here? I am here because no one had a sense of humour! You'd think everyone will appreciate bloated corpses flying at terrified citizens, wouldn't you? I laughed, the ogres laughed, everyone who doesn't think that's funny deserves to-_

A better question. Why aren't you leaving me alone?

_Oh, the idiot has a spine, eh? Few dare to interrupt when a God speaks. Farore has been too kind with you – I would stick you like the pig you are. Well, I'm here to say goodbye: funnily enough someone did slap you, and I want to laugh at your face before you're left with the abyss._

...What?

_See? That's the pathetic sense of humour I've come to expect of your worthless race. Can't you tell a joke when you see one? But aside from seeing how easy it is to denigrate trash like you, I'm here to ask why the hell you didn't use your magic. A bloody warlock that doesn't use magic!_

Shouldn't you know, being the God that you are? And I'm not a warlock.

_And our resident genius promptly forgets that he cast a Seal on me for the past bloody years. Not a warlock? What do you think you are then? A blinking sunflower?_

I'm a... fighter. And my magic's poisoned right now, so unless you know any antidotes leave me to contemplate how to open Shakaku's throat and keep it open.

_Ha, you're learning boy! Violence and murder, that is what makes a man strong! And funnily enough, I do know a few cures for poisoned magic. It usually involves dying, but you're already dead anyway, so it shouldn't matter that much to you._

... And what do I do?

_First, really die .Preferably as unpleasant as possible. Once that happens everything sorts itself out._

... Right. Any other good ideas?

_I'm not a filthy charity, brat. Be grateful I told you anything at all, and wake up before that nut with the baby's brat slaps you._

What?

_Ah, too late. He already did. Your awakening will be a painful one. I will enjoy it. And oh yes, you have to save Navi. Remember to kill someone along the way._

_-S-_

The first thing to strike Link was the amount of noise. Unintelligible words were being screamed from one end to another, mixing with the running water, clap of feet against floor and ripping fabric. People were moaning and the classic sounds of retching filled the air.

The second thing to strike Link was how itchy he felt. That and how much this itch hurt. Dimly he remembered being struck through twice by Shakaku. His throat felt scarred, a wracked tunnel of flesh dried and twisted. His chest felt like molten lead was filling up his lungs, a liquid fire that spread up his throat and down deeper into the pits of his belly.

No, that wasn't right. It was not a spreading sensation, but a piercing one like a heated knife left to sear away touching flesh, insidious pieces of iron poison left to rot him from the inside.

Oh good Goddesses did they check to make sure there were no metal fragments left?

The third thing to strike Link was a palm. That was the fourth and fifth thing to strike him as well.

Groaning, Link waved an arm to fend off the offending contact. His vision swam before him, a mixture of grey and red and white. Something shuffled on whatever he was lying on, causing the blobs of colour to bend a little.

When his vision returned, at first he thought he was in the lady's house: the red brick walls and her little kid (still wearing the locket) were proof of that idea. He had to discard that concept because the room was too large: at least eight times larger than the lady's apartment, and filled throughout with mats, blankets and bandages. Three doctors next to him were doing the tricky operation of removing four barbed hooks from a fellow's thigh. From the man's screams, there were no anaesthetics available.

Link gingerly touched his own chest, carefully applying pressure to the layers of bandages someone wrapped a bit too tightly around him. The doctors were kind enough to give similar treatment to his arms. Link hoped there was enough disinfectant for everybody: the yellowish stain rising from beneath his bandages was an indication he had some, but the doctors nearby didn't appear in a hurry to get any for the barbed patient.

Someone had taken away his green shirt and cap, as well as his gloves, but his trousers and boots were still on. His equipment was probably still left on the field. Judging from the amount of lighting the it was probably midday, meaning that at least six hours passed between the end of the battle and now. Still, for that much time to pass and the hospital to still be in a frenzy...

"This," Link grunted as he attempted to sit up, "will take a while to heal." Turning to the little boy, he said, "Hey kid, where's your mom? Is your family well?" From what Link last remembered, the defenders managed to keep the assault outside the walls, meaning she wouldn't have needed the sword he lent her.

The kid stared at him.

"Ah yes," Link sighed, "I forgot that we speak different languages. Navi's lucky with her translational abilities..."

His throat tightened then burned. Navi...

From her crumpled form, it looked like Shakaku had simply snatched her out of the air. And a small body held in the hands of a demon... he only needed to clench his fist in order to kill her.

Well, worrying now wouldn't solve anything. Lying down again, he tried to ignore the heckled vomiting nearby and the screams from the intestinal wounds. With the red brick, even the ceiling looked like it was coated in blood, dried clot that smeared itself over the wooden beams as crimson dust, the natural fissures of wood filling and bleeding-

The boy was now poking him, although he had the consideration to poke where there were no bandages.

Groaning Link tried to sit up again, waving the boy's hand away. "Yes, kid?"

The boy stared at him for a while, before standing up and walking to the exit. He stopped before leaving however and waited.

Link didn't think that the boy was so cruel to target an injured person and leave, so he guessed that the boy wanted to lead him somewhere. When the boy returned to poke him again before going back to the exit, Link decided to follow.

Link wondered which was worse: a soldier that could not raise a sword, or a soldier that could not walk. Looking around, it appeared that the enemy was drilled to specifically target the legs – perhaps a reason why the fatalities were so low, but Shakaku was still gloating. A person with an arm injury can still move around and do stuff, but a person with a leg injury needed someone to help bring them there, stressing the labour force by incapacitating half the population and tying down the other half to help them.

This scene was no place for a boy to stand at and look indifferent; no kid should ever have to look at a doctor pull metal shrapnel out of a man's abdomen and still have the look of "I've seen worse". Link wondered how long this country has been in war to turn a child numb to injury and mutilation.

His steps were slow, carefully navigated among the chipped scalpels, old bandages, empty bottles and what Link thought were amputated parts. There was too much to be done to do it cleanly. The boy waited until Link was at his side before tugging Link's hand – gently because there was a lot of bandaging – towards the corridors and streets beyond.

The corridors made temporary rooms for the injured, mats laid on the sides to let them lie down on. This need for extra space continued to the outside of the hospital, with dozens of men groaning atop the thin sheet of fabric that separated them from the gravel beneath.

"This can't be the only hospital," Link muttered, following where the boy pulled, "A city this size should have more than one."

The building the boy led him to was a familiar one. At some point someone removed the tapestries and ornaments from the entrance, something the little boy took note of as well. Frowning, he tugged Link into the discussion room, as bare as before.

The headman was missing, as well as one of the two men that Link last time found arguing over the map. The boy scampered to his mother, who was nervously sitting next to a bearded man wearing full plated armour. She smiled at Link when he entered, and then frowned at the number of bandages he was sporting. A man nursing his broken arm sat next to another man in full armour. Looking around, Link counted more than twenty people still geared for combat, with more than half of them bearing injuries.

The man from the previous pair grunted in acknowledgement when he saw Link enter before returning to his previous position of resting his head on his hands. He gazed at the map laid out on the table, occasionally shifting a piece and frowning at the action.

The lady gestured for Link to take the remaining empty chair at the table before leaving with her son in tow. None of the men noticed her departure with their eyes bearing on this foreigner. One of them asked something, and another snapped back.

"So," Link said slowly, scratching at the itch near his wrist and wincing from the contact, "anything I can do to help?" The men stared at him in incomprehension and muttered among themselves.

The man who was playing with the figurines on the map stood up and pointed at a position just above Link's right shoulder. Link turned around to see a blank wall, and was still confused when the man shook his head an imitated the same action on his own shoulder, but this time waving at a space near his ear. He said something and gestured to Link, palm raised in question.

"What?" Frowning, Link shook his head in incomprehension.

Sighing, the man repeated the motions, but before asking his question he raised both hands in front of him, and clasping his thumbs together flapped the remaining free digits in the manner usually used to describe a butterfly.

The pain in his chest did not come entirely from the physical wound. "Navi," he breathed. He was suddenly aware of how dry his mouth was. Frowning, he imitated the butterfly hands and spoke louder, "Navi was taken by Shakaku." He curled his left hand into a fist with the index and little finger still flapping, and repeating Shakaku's name again he used his right hand to grab the left.

The murmurs among the crowd abruptly broke into loud shouts. The armoured man who sat next to the lady stood up angrily and shouted at the man with the map, pointing almost accusatorily at Link. Another armoured man stood up as well, gesturing at Link and roaring something before heatedly smashing the table with a gauntleted fist. Another stood up to imitate the same action, his bristly moustache flaring in anger.

"I take it you didn't like the news," Link muttered, watching everyone shout and point and shout again. The man who tried to communicate with Link had his arms outstretched and was yelling at everyone. Gradually everyone sat down and stopped shouting, although from their faces and crossed arms they were still unhappy.

The lady returned then, having left behind her son but bringing the scimitar. Link smiled when she returned it, carefully leaning it against his chair so as to prevent it from falling. Many of the men eyed the sword with a soldier's interest, but quickly returned their gaze back to the speaker.

What he was saying and what it had to do with Link, Link did not know. Link wasn't sure whether that was a habit forming, but the man kept gesturing as he spoke, often making the butterfly hands and then pointing to the map. Occasionally an armoured man will grunt in consent when that happened, and add his bit while nudging some of the figurines on the map. Many still bore frowns.

One of them sighed loudly, interrupting the speaker in mid-sentence. Standing, he waved the speaker to sit down before addressing Link. Picking up the smallest figurine on the board, he held it right in front of Link's face and addressed it, "Narvee." As an afterthought, he mimicked the butterfly hands after putting it down.

"Navi, yes," Link said, raising his head in understanding. The man nodded and pointed to the blue figurines, and saying something swung his hands to encompass everyone in the room. He shifted the blue figurines around and pointed to the spear in the corner.

Link nodded. He guessed it before anyway. Blue was their soldiers.

The man stamped the ground as he prodded at a point on the map and shoving a number of red figurines around it. As delicately as his plated gauntlets would allow, he carefully shifted the blue figurines from the point on the map to meet the red. Saying something, he punched his palm, occasionally picking off one or two red and blue figurines.

Making sure Link was following, he picked up the piece that was meant to represent Navi and placed it near a line of red figurines. Grabbing a fistful of other blue figurines, he tried to arrange them behind Navi's representation before taking away the red figurines there. He repeated the process, moving Navi around and shifting a pile of blue behind her and taking away handfuls of any red nearby.

Link nodded slowly. "So," he muttered to himself, "Navi played the general, huh? And she was actually good at it? It figures that all those board games she knew would come into use somewhere."

Link could guess where the man was going at: with Shakaku having killed the city's own captain, they needed someone to lead their men until a new one could be found. Judging by how easily the man interrupted what Link assumed was the captain's assistant's speech, he wasn't a person held in high regard among the soldiers – they wouldn't follow him.

But they followed Navi for a while, and saw success.

Link sighed, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "When Shakaku took Navi, he wasn't targeting me only." He dimly noted that he was really thirsty – how much time had passed between the fight and now? Whatever it was, it was too much trouble to ask those people.

Picking up his scimitar, Link pointed to it and waved his hand around, palm up in enquiry. "Hey, where is the rest of my equipment? They're not easy to replace, and too many of them are dangerous." Masks, incendiaries, and three particular swords... Link had a bad feeling about them.

The silence from the others broke when another round of murmurs swept across the men, many of them making religious signals near their hearts. The lady frowned, wringing her hands before shaking her head. Sighing, she walked forward to take Link's hand, gently tugging towards the exit.

His bad feeling grew heavier like a lead weight in his stomach when the other men followed them out, the ones with capable arms holding their weapons tightly. The lady had picked up Link's scimitar, and she held it defensively in front of her as well. Navigating past the red buildings and injured men, she brought him towards the city gate with the battlefield outside.

People who were not injured or taking care of the injured were standing near the gate, soldiers bracing the doors against the bangs and surveying the outside from the posts above. Many who stood on steps to see past the walls had their hands to their mouths, eyes wide in horror. The lady tugged for Link to climb up the ladder onto the platform above. His chest felt like it was stretching. Inhaling deeply, he ascended the last rung and looked onto the battlefield.

After a battle, two types of people usually linger longer: the first would be a medic, one who checked to see how many people he could save from an avoidable death. Those people would keep their gazes on the people, listening for the moans that indicated a person was still breathing and they will leave the spoils of war for later.

The second type would be a scavenger. Dead men have no need for their armour and less for anything of value still on them. Men of desperate fortunes, they had to make a living in whatever way they could.

There were too many corpses out there, and too many of them looked recent. Link was not sure whether the newly dead were scavengers or medics, but the three still alive were probably once scavengers.

Now they were just beasts, slaves to the Swords.

It was horrifyingly easy to see who was wielding which sword. One man was roaring, saliva trickling down his chin as he swung his sword violently, hacking at the dead bodies in his way. With a hoarse bellow he slammed the sword down, cutting through a corpse's spine and applying his unnatural strength ripped the sword free. A wet popping noise revealed that he pulled out his shoulder joints, but eyes glazed he kept on attacking, slashing and ripping and gashing. Feral.

The second man didn't last for long. Standing still among the brutality caused by the man possessed by Feral, this one was screaming to the heavens, waving his sword clumsily and without concern for where the blade was. Looking around, he stared at the fallen bodies. An awkward stroke from his flailing sword went through his neck, decapitating him. The sword flew from his limp fingers to twist and dig into his thigh. Despair.

At first Link couldn't see the third man, but when a cry of alarm erupted from the guards holding the gates shut Link bent over to look at the entrance. The third man was slashing wildly at the gate, laughing and screaming something to the people inside. Wooden chips flew as he hacked at the doors, bloodying him where they scratched the skin. His mantra only grew louder with each small injury. Fury.

"And that's where my equipment went," Link sighed, watching the man with Feral brutalise more corpses. Turning around he was surprised to see the lady gone, with a soldier standing in her stead and holding the scimitar.

The man held it horizontally, and waving outside to the ripped bodies and then to the gates he pointed to the scimitar before pointing to Link. Repeating the gesture again, he added another motion at the end, swinging his arm at the elbow in a hammering motion on top of the blade.

"Did I forge the swords," Link confirmed before nodding, "yes."

Link didn't understand the words the soldier said, but he got the message: you made it, you fix it.

"Oh for crying out loud," Link poked at his bandages, "I'm still injured. Why can't one of your men deal with it?"

Unsurprisingly they didn't understand him.

Exhaling, Link searched for something to throw. It was at moments like these that he wished cities were a bit messier, for the best he could find on the platform was a wooden chip, probably from Fury's attacks on the gate.

His throw was pathetic: not only did it miss hitting the wrists as he intended it to, it had zero power to it; falling through the air the wooden chip slapped the man's cheek before toppling down his shirt, serving only to enrage him more.

Link was about to ask for someone with a better arm to throw something in his stead when gasps came from the people beneath, followed by screams and a ripple of people stepping back.

One of the soldiers barring the door mutely stepped back, examined the sword piercing through his sternum and fell. The blade wriggled in the air before being retracted.

The man wielding Fury had changed from slashing the door to stabbing it. And the soldiers, bracing it with their own bodies, were being stabbed along with it.

The man outside laughed as he said something, his next stab splintering another soldier's armour but missing the body. As the soldiers retreated a few steps he destroyed the lock, shoulder slamming the gates open.

Link had little time to waste. Before the man could rush forward and assault the undefended spectators Link jumped off the platform, landing on the man's back. There was the sensation of something ripping in his chest, but ignoring it he kicked the man's wrist, managing to knock free the sword.

"Ow ow ow ow pain," Link wheezed, gripping his chest, "shouldn't have done that." On the ground underneath his feet the man groaned, and gingerly Link stepped off his back.

Despite the sword Fury being freed from the man's grasp, the crowd was still screaming. Turning around, Link saw a close-up view of his sword Feral. Arching his back (and definitely hearing something rip) the blade sailed past his nose.

With the gate open, Feral had ignored the corpses and was targeting the live.

Falling to the floor he attempted to sweep at the man's legs with his feet, but driven by the sword the man jumped over Link, sword slamming into a soldier's block, the two swords crossed in a deadly game of strength.

Link hoped it was just his imagination, but he could see Feral bite into the soldier's sword, eating away the metal like acid. Judging from his expression, the soldier was imagining it too.

Other soldiers came to surround the possessed man. Breaking the gridlock Feral arced in a complete circle, warding off the soldiers. Snarling the man charged at the nearest soldier, blade raised for a decapitating strike.

Mind hazed by the sword he did not see Link's approach until a flying kick struck him in the waist. Breath forcefully expelled not even the sword's granted strength allowed him to successfully guard the following roundhouse kick to the elbows. Dazed, the final snap kick to the wrists knocked the sword free.

With a clatter the blade fell to the ground, soon followed by Link's wheezing form. The possessed man swayed with his body's shock before toppling unconscious.

"Oh sweet Din I definitely damaged something," Link coughed, rolling onto his back, "I don't think I'm getting up anytime soon."

Link mentally noted that as the injured were being dragged away, no one extended that courtesy to him. Fighting what he hoped wasn't a rib sticking into his lungs he managed to sit up, wobbling as he walked towards the two swords.

Frightened by the men's unnatural behaviour, the crowd was smart enough to leave the blades alone. Coughing past his parched throat Link shifted the swords with his foot, moving them into a corner.

"First things first," he rasped, "get some water. And medical attention. After that is my equipment." Leaning against the outer wall he slid down, unmindful of the splinters nestling into his back. "Tomorrow I'll find you Navi; I promise I will."

Before the lancing pains consumed him, he saw the lady shoving her way past the crowd to reach him. At least one person was concerned about his welfare...

... Pity he didn't know her name. Navi probably did.

_-S-_

A/N: Well, I must apologise for the incredibly slow update. Exams and stuff, plus general apathy and laziness prevented me from working on this for a while. As an apology I've went through this chapter a few more times than usual, so I hope the improvement in quality is noticeable. Hopefully that wasn't negated by any rust.

Thanks to any who remembered this distant and slowly updated story: I sometimes get the feeling that people are forgetting me. Well, that's always going to be a reason for me to work harder.

I hope that you enjoyed it. As usual, any comments will be gladly appreciated, as well as suggestions for improvement.

Cheers,

Silence-Darkness.


	36. Siege of Children

A/N: Anyone recognize me? No? Okay. I probably stayed on my desert island for long enough, and you can't see me through this beard and gauntness. Aye, I would tell you the story of the great iron turtles that hungered for my bones, but I think this story's a bit more interesting.

Chapter 34: Siege of Children

The rain pounded down heavily against Link's cloak. Hood pulled up, he had an excellent view of the mud his feet were sinking in, and above the torrent of the rain he could hear the squelch of each step, hear his bones creak and his muscles cry…

The rains started two weeks ago. He was trapped in bed back then, but he could feel the unnatural onslaught of water fill the air, a weighted humidity that reached deep into his lungs and tried to strangle him in his sleep. From what he could gather from the lady's nervous glances at the sky she hadn't expected the rain either. The ships could not sail against the thrashings of the wind and sea, and back then there was always a burst of violence in the street as agitated soldiers balanced the cage of this town against the reports of continued assaults to their homes.

Link didn't think Shakaku had managed to get some way of controlling the weather: his style appeared to use more strength and shock, to put on a display that would strike true terror into the opponents, rather than subtly kill them with no one for them to direct their fear towards. Regardless, Shakaku was still capitalising on the opportunity: every night a man would stumble at their gates, dying from his wounds, and he would beg, and the councilmen would listen but cannot act, and the soldiers grew even more restless.

After thirteen days of burying messengers the councilmen called on Link. They ushered him to their map and pointed to a costal city. This was where they were. They drew a line across to another city. One main clasped his hands in imitation of a butterfly.

Navi. Link did not ask any questions. He took a straight knife and claymore, accepted the cloak they proffered, and walked past the gates.

Link's hand drifted past his belt. No, he also took one more thing: the Fierce Deity mask.

Another wet squelch, and Link sighed as the mud swallowed his leg up to the knee. Normally two weeks would have been enough time for his bones to knit properly, for his muscles to rebuild. Normally he had a stock of red medicine nearby, or knew someone who could brew some. Normally he had the Goddesses' protection on his side. Normally he had his own magic to help.

_"You know what I do with whiners? I stick them, get the wood through the belly and up the throat, and let them bleed burning. So shut up."_

Link rubbed his brow slowly. And normally he didn't have the voice of a savage god stuck in his head either. Briefly he wondered why he could hear the Fierce Deity. The thought derailed as the mud started sucking in his other leg.

Through the heavy storm it was hard to tell whether it was day; any light was blotted out by the clouds, and the moisture in the air stuck to the eyes like a layer of film, making it harder to see. Link guessed that he had already been walking for more than a day. He drank the rain to quench his thirst, but his stomach still protested his negligence on bringing food. He once foraged through the plains to find some wild onions to eat, but the Fierce Deity put him off that.

_"Going to eat grass, boy, eat it like a cow? Oh, if the Goddesses could farm cattle like you, they'd have taken over the world with their army of goats. Bleat through the grass, boy, bleat."_

Link wished that he could find a way to get rid of the god's voice.

Wearily he trudged on. Link contemplated how well he could infiltrate the town while leaving giant mud prints behind him.

Deal with that problem when it arises. His hand lifted to the claymore strapped to his back; his shoulder muscles screamed in protest. Hopefully it wouldn't come down to that.

Engrossed in his thoughts Link almost tripped, his quick feet preventing him from completing the fall. Wiping his wet bangs away from his eyes, he peered at the ground: cobblestones. A pavement. Looking up, he was surprised that he ignored it before, but now that his eyes focussed on it the wall, illuminated by a few hanging lanterns, was in plain sight.

The lantern lights visible through the light rain, a sickly yellow reflected off the greying wood of the palisades. Link saw no signs of guards on the facing he was approaching: no stiff swivel of spears, no glints off helmets, no trudge of boots and no swaying kerosene lamps. For a camp that was under Shakaku's control, it was surprisingly undefended.

It didn't take a large leap of imagination to picture the walls as crying: the wood was slanted backwards, supplicating itself to the skies above, letting the rain course down its face as streams of tears. Splintered sections created the hooded eyes, vine roots that had etched itself deep into the wood created the wailing mouth. And to the beat of the rain and the slow groaning of the earth you could hear the town cry.

Looking at it all at once everything screamed at him. Link lurched unsteadily as his muscles renewed its protesting vigour, every bone fracture hissing, his blood pounding at his temples, screaming its chant of get out, get out, get out…

The earth yawned, the sky shrieked, the grass rattled, the wood moaned, and in his head the sounds mixed with the pains of his body, swirling into colours red and grey, high pitched voices that wailed danger, danger, danger! Get out, get out, get-

_"You, are one messed up kid."_

And all at once the sound stopped and the ground stopped spinning. Link staggered forward, a hand pressed tightly against his head. His body trembled before twisting to sit in the mud. Link ignored the cold that was soaking up his cloak.

"Damn, what the hell was that?"

_"Let's see, can you say crap food, crap air, crap body and crap magic? Repeat after me, you eat crap, you breathe crap, you are crap. No wonder your head's so crappy."_

"Thank you," Link mumbled. Pulling himself back onto his feet he stretched out to stabilise his arm against the wall-

"Urgh, nasty! What the hell is this?"

Link snatched his hand back and grimaced at the dark green paste covering it. The entire wall seemed to be patched with this substance, whatever that was emanating the earthy smell.

Link shook his head and wiped it on his cloak.

Mould. The wood was decaying. The entire wall was rotten.

_"These people wouldn't have lasted a minute against me. There's no fun in conquest when your opponents are filthy lambs."_

Why was it so poorly maintained? Withdrawing the straight knife, he hacked a hole through the wall – not only was it badly rotting, but it was dangerously thin – big enough for him to peep through.

A street, unpaved. Left and right held small houses and shops, front porches all with lit kerosene lamps. A fork in the road to the left. A ploughed plot of land to the right.

But no guards.

_"But you know, I get a sick pleasure from the phrase 'lambs to the slaughter'."_

Tucking away his knife, Link took a few steps back. Tightening the cloak around him he charged straight at the wall. Or tried to, but with his poor health and the deep mud he stumbled at it instead, but the result was the same. The wood did not shatter like planks do, or glass, but rather with a wet squelch ripped like damp paper, flaking and dripping apart after the first shock.

There was no motion to the sound of the tearing wood, no whispers of attention to the clatter as the chips met the earth, no stirring of the houses to Link's heavy landing. The entire street stayed silent. The entire place stayed devoid of people.

"What the hell is wrong with this town?"

_"Have you considered that maybe it is Hell itself? A demon runs the show, didn't you say?"_

Link didn't quite like how his feet sank in the road, the packed dirt turned into mud from the rain. He didn't like how when he approached one house, it was also made of rotten wood with no one inside. He didn't like how _new_ the kerosene lamps were even though everything else was so _old._

No, not everything else. The plot of land looked recently altered. He especially didn't like it when that plot of land wasn't made as a vegetable patch as he first expected, but as an abrupt burial ground. Stopping next to it he shifted some of the upturned dirt with his foot to cover an exposed leg – pale with no signs of decay; definitely recent.

"Why would they think that Navi's here? There's no one here," Link whispered to himself. He returned back to the road, eyes darting from structure to structure. "But no, that wouldn't explain why the lamps are all lit. Someone's still here."

_"Talking to yourself, boy? Scared of being alone in such a dead town?"_

Link ignored the Fierce Deity. "Why wouldn't they fix everything else, though? Wood's not in short supply outside, it shouldn't have been that hard to fix the walls and houses before they reached such disrepair."

_"Quiet, boy."_

"Where would they live, if not in these houses?"

_"I said quiet, boy."_

"Who was left to dig those-"

_"Shut up! Hear it?"_

Link paused. There was the creak of swaying lamps, the hushed groans of wind among the wood, the scattered sieve of displaced dirt, and yes: the military clink of steel armour. Link gritted his teeth in frustration, and looked around for a place to hide.

_-S-_

Chendry hated patrol duty. She hated walking among the husks of the houses, the loneliness of the job exacerbated by the emptiness of the town. She remembered a time when mothers scolded their children about jumping around in those flower gardens, and when fathers sat in those verandas after a day of labour.

Now the gardens buried bones and the houses sunk deeper into the moss and decay, and the mothers and fathers were gone. It all went wrong when the demon came, and the demon promised of righting everything if they listened to him.

So there she was, wearing armour never fitted for her and carrying a sword she could not wield, walking through the dead neighbourhood of town. She kept her gaze close to the ground and rushed through the job, hoping to finish the route quickly and return to the centre where the remaining people lived. And so it was that she didn't notice the gaping hole in the wall until she was right in front of it.

The first thing she noticed was the wooden flakes covering the ground. Maybe a house had finally collapsed, she had thought, the decay finally chewing through the supports to let the upper stories groan and sink. If that was the case then she didn't want to look and see another reminder of how far the town had fallen.

But she had once lived in this area. If it wasn't her house, then it was a house of one of her friends. They would want to know that, whether the crumb of hope in returning to their homes had dissolved to rest with the bones.

The second thing Chendry noticed was a track of boot prints. Mud lathered mud, which was unsurprising – with the heavy rain everyone's footsteps left a trail of mud. But no one should have been here, no one would have wanted to return unless Averiz told them to, and he only told her.

And finally she saw the gaping rip in the wall, a gory eye to the fields beyond and the fear of freedom and capture.

Twisting on the spot she fumbled the sword free of its sheath. She almost laughed at how the tip pointed at the ground despite her attempts to hold the sword correctly. Glancing at the decayed houses, she shifted around for the intruder, hoping that she wouldn't find him.

"Hello?" she called nervously once in the native dialect and again in the common language, "is anybody there?"

Wood and mortar creaked, and almost dropping the sword she spun to see the chimney stack of a house – Janson's, she noted – lurch and tilt as the bricks broke free and ripped through the thatched roof to smack and slowly sink with the foundation.

There was a shadow of a flicker as the house broke apart, but no one replied. Hesitatingly she shuffled closer to the wreckage, but the patter of feet forced her to turn around and hunt for the source of the sound.

The streets were still empty. The wind moaned through the tear in the wall, and a loose lock of hair fell free of the helmet and blocked her eyes. Yelping she dropped the sword to wipe the hair aside and so was rotting wall that was collapsing towards her.

Chendry yelped as the wall splintered against her cheeks, her arms brought protectively to her eyes. The rotten wood was soft, but still heavy; she screamed as she tripped over the collapsed chimney, falling along with the wall. Pain snaked up her back and ankle. The decayed wood split to give her full view of the person behind.

Whoever that person was, he was bigger than her and carried a sword the same size as him. Scrambling back to her feet she ran back to the centre, frantically searching for her whistle. There was groan of another house collapsing, but she didn't dare look back.

_-S-_

Link pulled up his hood to shield himself from the dust and mossy wood that was kicked free from the collapsing house, but his attention was spent watching the retreat of the soldier. He frowned at the frantic shrieks of the whistle.

_"You should have killed her, boy. Your secret infiltration's not all that secret with her racket."_

Link's frowned deepened when she tumbled from the ungainly armour, the whistle falling free from her lips. She pulled herself up and kept running. She left the whistle behind.

"She's a girl."

_"Glad you noticed it was no eunuch, boy. What, growing a stupid chivalric sense of battle? A soldier's a soldier, and deserves to be gutted like a pig. Cut the kid, not the wood, you pathetic idiot."_

"No," Link gritted his teeth, "a girl, not a woman. She's a kid, younger than me."

_"Another brat; so?__ All it means is she bleeds less when you finally gut her."_

"Why is this town manned by kids?" It was frighteningly easy how he pulled the claymore free from the wood, and he started walking along her mud prints. Wherever she was going had to have other people, and probably where Navi was being held.

_"Isn't it obvious, boy? Brats fight because there's no one else. Momma's dead, boy, she's keeping papa company."_

Link remembered the buried leg, and he walked a little faster.

_-S-_

No one was too surprised when Chendry returned a good hour earlier than expected – if it was them, they would have found a corner to hide in until their duty was over. They weren't expecting her to actually run back out of breath and missing her sword.

"Intruder," she gasped, dropping to her knees from exhaustion and the weight of her armour, "someone got in."

"Where's he now?" Janson asked. He was the biggest of the group, and when Averiz wasn't around acted as the leader.

"I don't know." Looking warily behind her, she continued, "I never saw his face, but he can use a sword."

Janson frowned. "Averiz won't like this. We have to find your intruder. The town's not too big, so it shouldn't take too long." Seeing Chendry's frightened face, he added, "We'll go in threes. No one attacks people in groups."

"His sword is bigger than me," she mumbled, but Janson ignored her. The children fumbled into groups, clutching their oversized weapons protectively.

"Remember," Janson added, "we got to find him before Averiz wakes up. I don't want to be eaten." His voice maintained its steady edge, but they could all see the panic building in his eyes. No one wanted to be disciplined by Averiz.

Before they all filed out of the centre a low keen filled the air, the snapping of aged wood filling their ears before the tallest building in the distance – a disused clock tower – tilted and collapsed.

"And he can cut through buildings," Chendry whispered. Janson couldn't ignore her this time.

_-S-_

_"Destroying buildings isn't going to help you, boy. You've got to grab a person and make him scream."_

Link sat on the porch of a church – the windows were cracked and faded, the monuments broken – and tried to stabilise his vision. The world was lurching again, the anguish of the rain and wood screaming in his mind in a cacophony. His arms were shaking from the exertions with the sword.

The ground twisted. Bile caught in his mouth. Link turned aside and heaved; he had no food to throw out, only water. He raised a hand to wipe the sticky film away from his mouth.

_"You're in bad shape, boy. Someone's coming."_

Link held his breath painfully, halting his panting as his ears strained for what the Fierce Deity noticed. At first he could only concentrate on the fire rolling in his chest, but above the rain he could hear the clink of armour.

_"I'm taking control."_

Link shook his head, wobbled to his feet before collapsing back down again. He touched his wrist to his forehead; a fever. "It's just kids," he ground out, standing back up again, "I can handle it."

_"Ah, you have mistaken me. I am not asking. I am taking."_

And suddenly Link could feel the mask heat up on his waist, a surge of darkness racing up his veins to his brain. He staggered once, pulled up his will and magic in defence, but the poison flowing through struck him once more. By the time he disengaged it, the darkness swept his will aside, and Link's mind dropped, falling, falling…

And crashed.

_-S-_

Chendry knew immediately that this was not the same attacker as last time. No; the cloak was the same, the body was the same, but she could _feel_ that the mind was not the same. He sat cross-legged at the church's entrance, back facing them, and for all appearances looked like he was appreciating the architecture.

The wood was already old, but from her perspective it looked like the building was buckling to get away from his presence. The rain that hissed on the ground snaked away in streams, bending away from his form. The groan of the wind and the stone screamed with the repulsion to his being, slowly twisting to get away.

Chendry did not know how long they stood there watching. At some point one of her companions drew his sword. The intruder could not have heard the blade's whisper above the rain, but immediately he stood up and shrugged off his claymore.

There was an entire street's length between them, but they could feel the mental pressure urging them to flee before it was too late, that it is already too late. Even at the distance their forms were reflected off the giant sword, skinny bodies in oversized armour, scrawny knees wobbling to hold up all the weight.

The other companion drew his sword, Chendry fumbled for hers. The intruder turned around.

He was sick, he was still sick: his skin was unhealthily pale, his body shook with minute shivers, a thin trail of vomit remained on his chin. But his bloodshot eyes were wild and hard, callous and calculating, desiring destruction and desiring death.

Chendry screamed for them to run. One of them charged instead; the intruder laughed and wiped off the vomit line. Before her friend took three steps a straight knife cut the distance and sawed through his armour to sink deep into the thigh.

They dropped their swords and pulled the knife free from the blossoming wound. They held their friend and ran.

The intruder was still laughing.

_-S-_

Link knew darkness. His meetings with Farore were in areas of darkness with the illusion of light. The Shadow Temple existed in darkness that bites the mind, gnawing it raw with fear.

Link could not see his body. He was not sure he had a body: clapping his limbs released no sounds, resulted in no sensations. He was just sentience floating in an abyss, surrounded with the furthest depths of black.

"I normally decorate for guests, but I think you're used to it." Link did not know whether he turned, or whether his vision shifted, or whether the darkness shifted, but suddenly a man stood in front of him. The man was as dark as the black that surrounded him, only tattoos of silver that etched his entire body gave his form away.

Link tried to speak, but realised he had no voice. _Where am I? Who are you?_ He reached to touch his throat。 He forgot he didn't have a hand. He forgot he didn't have a throat.

"Where are you?" The form barked a laugh. "I think you'll be able to figure that out by now. Who am I?" The silver tattoos glowed, and colour formed between them. "You should know that as well."

A face. A mask. A god.

_The Fierce Deity._ Coal black eyes greeted him, narrowed from a smirk of contempt.

Link had a good guess what the Fierce Deity looked like on him, and he saw how the god's possession appeared on Reza. Both forms paled to the true form, unspoiled and pure, defined and ephemeral, and radiating power from every step, every glance.

"Now, if you remember what I told you the last time we had an actual discussion," the world fluttered, and Link's mind screamed a vision of white as the god carved a body for him. Bones that previously weren't there snapped into place. Muscles twisted and contorted as organs enlarged. "There is one way of cleansing your magic." He paused when Link's form was completed, the skin stretching to cover the muscles. As an afterthought he shaped Link's normal green clothes as well.

"What?" Link's voice didn't sound right. His muscles didn't feel right, his bones didn't move right.

The Fierce Deity smirked. A longsword materialised in Link's hand at the same time the shadows were given colour, given form.

"Dying."

The world lurched as the shadows howled.

_-S-_

They lost the eastern residential area first. The clock tower collapsed soon after. The church fell, followed by the manor, the weather tower, the southern residential area.

Somewhere along the way the game changed. They weren't trying to flush the intruder out.

The stones groaned around Janson, and he turned to see the watchtower lean over. Wood splintered free from the leaning construct before the entire thing fell. Four of his friends scrambled around the corner, panicking to escape the cloaked man lazily following them. Janson ran as well.

The intruder was trying to flush them out.

There was no other choice: Janson had to get Averiz's help. The intruder hadn't killed anyone yet – he was taking a sick pleasure in seeing them scream to get away – but it was only a matter of time. Before then, a demon should be pitted against a demon.

He ran for the centre, where Averiz was resting. The others saw where he was going and scattered. The demon was leisurely following him.

He turned the corner. Averiz was awake.

Janson whimpered.

"I don't want to die…"

_-S-_

The Fierce Deity watched as everyone a sudden force swept over everyone else. They watched the boy run, and immediately they all changed direction to run away.

When one ran right past him, his interest was secured.

They were afraid of him. But they feared something else even more.

He let the one that glanced off his elbow to pass. He followed the boy everyone was running away from.

When he turned the corner, he tilted his head to avoid the gauntlet flying his direction. A Gigas – skin blackened with age but hardened from battle experience – hacked before spitting out an arm of bone.

The Fierce Deity noted the little boy shivering and whimpering to the side, clutching the bloody stump of his shoulder.

When the Gigas turned its milky silver eyes to him, the Fierce Deity laughed and unsheathed the claymore.

"Now, _this_ is entertainment."

_-S-_

It is but a game of the god, Link reminded himself, gripping the blade's edge to shove aside the enemy's sword, a sick game of his.

It is not real.

While the opponent stumbled Link leaped forward, grabbing the enemy's neck as he thrust the sword deep into the abdomen.

The enemy was silent, blue eyes watching the gutted abdomen impassively as Link drew it up to cleave right past his shoulder.

Link saw his own face grey, released the body and tumbled back. Clutching his own abdomen and chest, he crumpled and released a hoarse scream.

It is not real.

This body is not mine, Link reminded himself, this pain is not mine. He rolled around and raised his sword just in time to block an overhead swing. Blue eyes locked with blue eyes. Dirty blonde hair trailed over dirty blonde hair. One face matched against the exact same face.

Link shifted to let the sword sail past before aiming a messy arc at the enemy's throat.

Again, the copy did not cry out. Link howled enough for both of them, staggering under the pain as he held his own throat.

A part of his mind was disconnected from the pain. A part of his mind noticed discrepancies between this artificial body and his real one – the poor nervous connection, the numbed strength – and so stated that the two were not the same, that this is not real.

That death is not real.

Link shot a wild glance around. Every time he slew a copy of himself the shadows will roil, and another copy will emerge. It happened over twelve times already, and so Link was expecting the thirteenth.

Half a minute had passed; the shadows boiled with fury, but no new opponent came free.

Gulping in air – part of his mind noted from its slimy feel that it could not be air – he slowly turned around, blade at the ready. The seconds passed and Link watched the darkness stretch and twist.

"Din's…"

A voice. His voice. But not from his throat.

"…Fire!"

Link turned around in time to see the world engulfed in flames.

A part of his mind stated that death was not real. The fires reached Link, smothered him, strangled him, and that part of his mind died.

_-S-_

"It's not everyday you get to fight something the gods found too hideous to look at," the Fierce Deity laughed as he danced out of the Gigas' reach, avoiding the crushing grip.

The Gigas growled and renewed its effort.

"I mean, usually anything unsightly just gets wiped away, extinguished," hopping alongside he scored a bleeding gash along the Gigas' arm, "but you? They must have tried, but each time they tried to look at you they missed."

The Gigas howled. The Fierce Deity managed to dodge its second arm, but the remaining pair clamped around Link's body tightly. His sword was pinned.

Still he smiled. "Yes, you're that ugly."

Now that the Fierce Deity was trapped the Gigas regarded him more calmly.

"Shakaku mentioned there was a boy with a skilled sword," it growled out slowly, unused to speech, "he never mentioned the boy had a flying mouth."

"He never mentioned his lackeys are idiots," the Fierce Deity grinned, "but I don't fault him for that."

The Gigas surveyed him impassively. "I could crush you like a bug. I have crushed many armies, killed many generals. You are nothing against me."

He nodded condescendingly. "Then tell me, oh great cow of war, what are you doing in this wasted land? There is nothing here. I get the feeling you're here because you're unwanted everywhere else." His grin faltered for a moment as the grip around him tightened. "Is the great cow feeling neglected? No one wants an aging, half-blind _weakling_ like you."

The Fierce Deity flew from the hands of the Gigas into the embrace of the surrounding structures when the Gigas hurled him across. He had little time to appreciate the feel of snapping wood when a gigantic fist tore threw the rest to strike him fully across the chest. Flying free of the structure a palm swatted him into the ground, pinning him there.

The Fierce Deity laughed as the pressure increased. "Something broke," he chuckled, "something broke in this already broken body. Link is really going to feel it."

The Gigas loomed overhead, snarling. The Fierce Deity frowned as its saliva dripped free in large globs around him. "Why do you laugh? I have won."

He smirked. "Had you been fighting the true host of this body perhaps you would have won. Any other day maybe, and you would have won." His eyes glowed in a darker hunger; the world tilted, screamed silently, returned to the greying sky. "Today you lose."

The Gigas howled as black flames roared free of the pinned body, severing his hand. Stepping back he watched the flames climb higher on his severed wrist before looking at the person push his smoking palm aside and calmly stand up.

"Today you fight a god."

_-S-_

_He cut me. Help._

Link staggered around the foggy abyss. The first new copy used Din's Fire in greater flexibility than Link himself: streams, domes, fireballs, the magic was manipulated to a greater dexterity thank Link himself had.

Link won. Fire is not a physical force; Link withstood the flames to throw his sword through the dome and into the copy's heart.

The second copy used Farore's Wind, using it to teleport, increase its movement speed, even create an illusionary copy of itself. Link didn't know how to do that.

Link won. The moment he realised his opponent was the illusion he flipped his sword to extend behind him. The copy often teleported close for decapitating strikes. It impaled itself on his sword.

The third copy used Nayru's Love, creating an invincible layer around itself, hardening its blade beyond diamond, creating for itself the perfect sword and the perfect shield.

Link won. It was invincible, but it was not stronger. He managed to get close and grapple with it, stealing its sword. The perfect sword against the perfect shield. Both broke. Link plunged his sword deep past its face.

And with each strike Link felt himself dying over and over again.

The last copy used all three as well as magic arrows. An indestructible defence and a rapid sword if he chose to fight close; a spray of fire and ice arrows if he chose to escape far. And an arena of holy fire all around.

Link wasn't sure if he won. He felt himself dying, felt the arrows plunge deep and the magic bite, felt the heat of the fires, felt the unflinching thrust of swords. He felt his limbs hacked, felt his guts ripped, felt his bones sawed, felt fear, felt panic, felt the screaming desire to live and called…

… called what?

Pain and death coalesced at the centre of his chest before exploding out. When his eyes opened the copy was gone.

Did he kill it? Or did he die and this was the after world of this nightmare?

_He cut me. Help._

But a voice called. And so Link staggered onwards, towards it.

Link should have been suspicious of any voice in his mind. But he was weary and running on instincts, and the voice was familiar.

"Who, Malik, who?" he croaked free. "Where are you?"

_He cut me. Help._

The fog was thick, and the voice echoed from all directions. But he could see a glimmer of light and shadow in one direction, a vague shape within the darkness all around.

He waded through the mist. Link found Malik.

Every joint had been sawed through, leaving him a being composed of many little bits – finger tip, finger, palm, wrist, elbow shoulder, collar bone – disconnected joints that were held distant from one another.

Not disconnected, no: the arteries still ran throughout the entire length, veins pumping as they acted as cords between the severed parts, twisted ligaments stretched in air as they linked bone to bone, body part to body part…

The flesh had fallen off Malik's neck and spine; they were individual bone disks stretched and wrapped with beating arteries, still in the misty air except for the occasional creak and quiver of collapsing bone…

Malik smiled widely. His teeth hung free of his gums, dangling from purple blood vessels.

"He said if I cut you, he would fix me."

_He cut me. Help._

Link stared as the abomination pulled itself to its total height, ligaments shivering as it walked towards him. His sword arm trembled.

This was sacrilege. This was an offence to his friend, an insult to Link. This disfigurement of his memories did not deserve existence.

Link howled and charged.

_He cut m-_

_-S-_

"My, my," the Fierce Deity held the claymore higher up into the light, "the brat made this? Not bad, not bad at all."

Of the Gigas' four arms two were lost: one from the black fires that coalesced around the Fierce Deity, the other from the steel bite of the sword. The Fierce Deity had moved too quickly; the blade glimmered in a blinding arc that flashed the eyes and then-

Averiz howled in pain as it clutched its bleeding stump. The blade had sawed through the tough skin to strike hard against the bone. The Fierce Deity clucked in irritation, adjusted his grip, and hacked all the way through.

"Not even blunt yet," he admired, "and they say Gigas bones are harder than stone. Then again, this Gigas is a blind sheep left out to rot." He took his time to look around: the brats were failing at trying to be discreet, hiding around the corners. Dying kerosene lamps illuminated the square, but it didn't matter; from the colour of the sky the sun was going to rise in less than an hour. "I won't need magic against rotting filth like you. Besides, there's never enough blood involved." He chuckled darkly. "Let's see how much you bleed."

"Swords," the Gigas hissed, "_SWORDS!_" His roar echoed through the plaza. The Fierce Deity stood back amused as the children carried a crate closer before scuttling away. The Gigas smashed it open; one blade he held between his teeth, two more he held in each hand. The remaining two he kicked aside; one child did not run far enough. The Fierce Deity grinned deeper at the screams.

The swords were crudely made – basic broadswords that did not even have a proper handle yet – but what they lacked in finesse they made up in side. The two swords were twice as tall as Link, with the blade at the teeth capable of gutting into Link with more than two feet extending. Cruel weapons.

The Fierce Deity laughed. "Now, this _is_ entertainment."

_-S-_

"Stop it… stop it…"

_Give it back._

Left foot. Right foot. A step forward. Stop, Goddesses, stop… A step forward.

He couldn't let go of the sword. He couldn't stop looking forward. He couldn't stop moving forward.

Malik's blood smeared his arms. Wispy remains of tendons wrapped around the coated blade, tiny channels for the aging blood to trickle down by. Purple nerves wrapped his boots like baby roots, crunching with each step.

He couldn't get the sounds out of his head. The dripping blood, the snapping bone, the sickening squelch as steel tore flesh, the gurgling throat…

He couldn't get the voices out of his head.

_It's mine. Give it back._

"Stop it. Please, Goddesses, stop it…"

A crypt. The hazes had formed into the dank mists that settled in the bottoms of crypts. A sickly green light from the phosphorous.

He knew this place. The marble sarcophaguses, the pallid dirt, the aging air…

The Royal Cemetery. He was walking deeper into the heart of the graveyard.

"Hello, Link."

She sat on top of the last sarcophagus. The green lights gave a deathly glow against her pale white dress, swirling to the rhythm of phantom calls. Swaying her legs to her gentle humming, she looked into the darkness beyond, revealing her left profile. His heart yearned at her beauty.

Her name escaped his lips.

"Princess Zelda."

This was the Royal Cemetery. ReDeads were meant to walk in eternal guardianship. Link's eyes darted but his neck would not turn. The air was thick; a foul mist invaded his lungs.

The dead walked. But he could not see where.

"Do you still have it? The Triforce?"

He raised his arm. The blade hovered close to her throat. The Triforce of Courage glowed brightly.

It burned with anger.

Zelda flicked a glance at the glowing emblem. "That's nice. They took mine." She turned to look directly at him.

Her right side was dead. A perfect division in the middle between life and decay, beauty and horror, perfection and corruption. The right nose cavity had caved in from the decayed cartilage, her eye a black hole into the moulding chamber of her skull.

The left side grinned cheerfully. String-like muscles stretched, withered lips reared back, yellowed teeth bared in an unholy sneer.

She raised her right hand. Right where the Triforce of Courage should have been, a giant hole had been gored through. Broken veins slipped with each motion, a rotting curtain covering up the sin of loss, the sin of death.

_It's mine. Give it back._

The cage that controlled his motions broke. Down the partition of his sword lay her reflection, perfectly divided. Beauty and death.

His heart yearned for beauty.

His sword yearned for death.

His heart died.

"I want it back. I-"

The tip hovering close to the throat. Phantom calls broken by screams. Screams and blood.

_-S-_

"While I'm still here, I might as well do the brat a favour," the Fierce Deity mused. He smashed aside one swing and back flipped over the second. He skipped back as a blade crashed into his guard. "Ah, forgot about that one."

The Gigas snarled over the sword held by his teeth.

"So, seen any fairies?" The Fierce Deity dodged a slash, letting it sink deep into the moist earth. Running on top of the blade he plunged his sword deep into the wrist, pinning the arm to the ground.

Averiz howled and caught Link's body with the pommel of his second sword. The Fierce Deity laughed as he twisted in the air to dodge the follow up slash.

"Strength but no style," he tsked, "but I never expected a cow to think. Nonetheless, seen any fairies?"

Slash to legs, hop; thrust to chest, parry; decapitation, duck; bash to head, roll and counter. With black enjoyment the Fierce Deity scored a long slash along one of the stubbed arms, letting the sword sink in before twisting it out.

The Gigas bit down harder on the sword and lunged forward. The Fierce Deity suddenly realised that from the front and from the sides he was surrounded by thirsting steel. "My, my…"

The ground buckled under the force of the first swing. Dashing to the side he dodged the blade as it dropped like a guillotine. With a curse the second sword plunged for his heart; glowing splinters burnt his face as the tip drilled into his claymore, thin lines cracking along the point of impact. With a thrust he deflected the sword aside.

For a brief moment his view was blocked by the Gigas' face, the wild madness in the eyes, the sneer among the fangs, the saliva dripping off the blade…

The vision blotted out as the sword thrust past his ribcage beneath the lungs.

"That," the Fierce Deity snarled through gritted teeth, "was a stupid move. You know what I said about magic before?" He dropped the sword and thrust both hands to clutch the Gigas' temples. "I'm fed up. Now die."

It had no chance to scream: the fires reached through the eyeballs to flood the insides of the skull. With a dull roar it condensed, the black light leaking through the eyes and the mouth.

The Fierce Deity staggered back and smirked. "Out with a bang, you ugly goat."

The ball of fire condensed… and then exploded.

Biting back a howl he pulled the sword free of his chest. Spitefully he drove it through the headless corpse. He looked up to admire the rising sun.

"I wonder how the brat is doing." He scratched his chin in thought. He glanced at the buildings. "Five seconds or I burn this entire town down!"

A pause, and then hesitantly a boy shuffled out of the shadows he was hiding in. He clutched the stump of his missing arm. The Fierce Deity snorted in humour; the kid's legs were shaking from pain and fear.

"Smart choice," he grunted, "now, seen any fairies?" I sound like an idiot, the Fierce Deity thought. He threw a ball of fire to burn away the Gigas' limbs. There. Better.

The boy's eyes widened with fear. Trembling he looked around; the others had fled. "Y-yes."

"Ah good, progress." He wished the kid would stop hiccupping in fear. "Where?"

"The dark factory," a trembling finger pointed north, "they brought a sprite there."

A raised eyebrow. "Factory?"

"T-they recreate people there." He shivered. "The dead don't stay dead. The red demon said if we do what Averiz says, mama and papa will come back."

The Fierce Deity grinned. "Always wanted to see a necromancer's facility." He grabbed the cracked claymore and slung it over his shoulder. He turned around to head in the given direction before pausing.

The boy screamed as the Fierce Deity gripped his bleeding shoulder tightly.

"Here," he chuckled as black fire poured between his fingers, "a gift."

Through the tight grip the boy couldn't wriggle free. He cried in horror as the flames coalesced like they did inside Averiz's skull.

The Fierce Deity snorted. Such distrust.

Instead of exploding the fire reformed, becoming a shaft. It twisted and distorted, breaking into parts and reforming.

The boy's throat dried when he realised the shape.

A skeleton replica of an arm.

More fire twisted to create muscles before a final layer sheeted over as skin.

The Fierce Deity finally let go, wiping a layer of sweat away from his brow. "This land's so dry," he grunted. He glanced at the boy who was flexing the fingers. "You'll get used to the colour scheme. Enjoy."

_-S-_

First Malik. Then Zelda.

He saw a pallid Malon, fingernails bloody from scratching her way free from her coffin. Blood smeared her teeth and throat. He killed her.

He saw a bloated Reza. Grey from a lack of oxygen, seawater bled forth from her punctured lungs. He killed her.

He saw the guard Tylos, swaying in the breeze. His neck snapped from the pressure on the noose holding him up. Hands and feet had been staked together, giant needles puncturing the wrists and ankles. He killed him.

He saw Saria carrying a baby Link in a basket on her back to the river. He saw the baby scream and cry as she held him to wash in the river. She did not let him breathe. He killed her.

He saw Mido. He saw Impa. He saw Talon. He saw Darunia. He saw Anju. He saw Ruto. He saw Rauru. He saw the carpenters. He saw Nabooru. He saw himself.

He killed them all.

The world had returned to black. He walked through the continuous abyss, sword limply held in hand. There was no one left. He killed them all. There was no one left.

He raised his head.

Dark Link raised its bow and fired an ice arrow.

"Die," Link snarled. He rolled aside to dodge the arrow and twisted to avoid the glacial stalagmites that erupted from the ground. "Die. Die. Die."

A fire arrow was blocked by his sword. The flames reached over, engulfing his hand and creeping upwards to his body. He ignored it. "Die, die, die, die, die."

The light arrow shattered his sword. Flying true it lanced through his abdomen. Link howled as the magic exploded from within, tearing his entrails free. He ignored it and kept on running. "Die! Die! Die!"

Dark Link unsheathed his sword. Its swing was caught with one hand, the blade biting deep into the flesh and bone. Link's punch met the barrier of Nayru's Love. He punched again; knuckles twisted and cracked from the force. With a compressed bang the shield broke, tearing all the skin free from Link's hand.

Dark Link returned the fist with his sword, slicing through the hand to dig the blade into Link's chest. The black blade burned crimson with Din's Fire. Link screamed as his lungs caught fire, his ribs melted, his heart burned with savage fury. Lungs and throat scarred by fire he still screamed. "_Die! Die! Die! Die!_"

One hand bloody one hand broken he reached for Dark Link's neck. With a violent thrust he clamped tightly, shoving it down as his palm's edges met in the crushing grip. The blade slid deeper into his chest. He screamed as the fires ate into his abdomen, burning away, outwards. "_DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!_"

Dark Link struggled as its throat buckled under the force. One hand now held down its throat as the other repeatedly punched its face, exposed bones acting as claws that raked across.

It was a test of who will die first.

The fires burnt upwards to his shoulders. His punches weakened as his muscles were torn away. Weakly he clawed at Dark Link's eyes, finger bones sinking into the black skull. "Die… die… die…"

His body was dying. Fatigue had overtaken the wild madness that had consumed him. His torso was a wreck; Din's Fire had shrunk into sputtering embers, but the damage reached far, reached deep. "…"

Dark Link struggled one last time before stilling. Its form bled back to the darkness as it died.

"… die…"

_-S-_

_"Congratulations, brat.__ Welcome back to the real world."_

Link felt like hell. He collapsed to the side and vomited. Blood splotched free of his lips; his chest screamed in pain. "What…?"

_"You came back a bit earlier than I expected. Pity."_

Weakly he raised his head. They were no longer in the town, he noticed; black fumes filled the sky, grey fires flaring to reach the sky. A cacophony of chants and screams filled the air. "What…?"

_"Good news or bad news?"_

He tried to get back to his feet. Pain wrenched him and he collapsed.

_"Ah, bad news it is. Due to me your sword's broken. Your body's broken."_ A pause. _"Your mind's broken."_

He gulped in the acrid air, trying to summon the strength to pull himself up.

_"Good news though, due to me we found Navi." _A pause. _"And your magic, now that isn't broken."_ A dark laugh. _"I want a bang, boy, the biggest you can give."_

_-S-_

A/N: Well, a bit shorter than usual, but I don't think it's that noticeable. A lot gorier than usual; you can't have missed that. Funnily enough I wrote the latter half (the guts-and-blood half) while at the same time reading a comedy manga. Go figure.

Sorry if this is a break from my usual style, but I figure might as well experiment with the shadier side of writing. I'm not sure if you would like it, since the emphasis is on the pain rather than the fight.

I just wanted to make the point that the Fierce Deity is cruel. Worth your attention, no doubt, but not worth your admiration.

Don't worry, it shouldn't get any more… violent than this. It sounded pretty good in my head, but I'm kind of having second thoughts about it now. As always, comments and criticism is appreciated. And don't mind any typos you see – it's nearly 2 in the morning right now.

Faithfully yours,

Silence-Darkness.


End file.
